Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Allen, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Allen, Richard, 1760–1831, American clergyman, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born a slave in Philadelphia and purchased his freedom. He became pastor of a black group tha...

drumlin

(Encyclopedia)drumlin drŭmˈlĭn [key], smooth oval hill of glacial drift, elongated in the direction of the movement of the ice that deposited it. Drumlins, which may be more than 150 ft (45 m) high and more than...

Crerar, John

(Encyclopedia)Crerar, John krēˈrər [key], 1827–89, American capitalist and philanthropist, b. New York City. Crerar was a manufacturer in Chicago, and gave liberally to many causes. He is remembered chiefly fo...

Amador Guerrero, Manuel

(Encyclopedia)Amador Guerrero, Manuel mänwĕlˈ ämädōrˈ gārāˈrō [key], 1833–1909, first president of Panama (1904–8), b. Colombia. A physician, he served as medical officer for the Panama RR and was a ...

Green, Samuel Swett

(Encyclopedia)Green, Samuel Swett, 1837–1918, American librarian, b. Worcester, Mass. Green was librarian of the Worcester, Mass., Free Public Library (1871–1909) and was a member of the Free Public Library Com...

Fredonia

(Encyclopedia)Fredonia frēdōˈnēə [key], village (2020 pop. 9,585), Chautauqua co., SW N.Y., near Lake Erie; ...

Gage, Matilda Joslyn

(Encyclopedia)Gage, Matilda Joslyn, 1826–98, American woman-suffrage leader, b. Cicero, N.Y. Joining the women's rights movement in 1853, she edited in Syracuse, N.Y., the National Citizen, a feminist journal. Sh...

Olcott, Henry Steel

(Encyclopedia)Olcott, Henry Steel, 1832–1907, American religious leader and author, cofounder of Theosophist movement, b. Orange, N.J. After working as an agricultural scientist and a lawyer, he and Helena Blavat...

Luddites

(Encyclopedia)Luddites, name given to bands of workingmen in the industrial centers of England who rioted between 1811 and 1816. The uprisings began in Nottinghamshire, where groups of textile workers, in the name ...

Leopold, Aldo

(Encyclopedia)Leopold, Aldo, 1886–1948, American ecologist, b. Burlington, Iowa. He was an advocate for a “land ethic,” in which humans see themselves as part of a natural community. After work in the U.S. Fo...