Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Saint Bernard, two Alpine passes

(Encyclopedia)Saint Bernard, two Alpine passes, both used since antiquity. The Great Saint Bernard (alt. 8,110 ft/2,472 m), on the Italian-Swiss border, links Valais canton, Switzerland, with Valle d'Aosta, Italy. ...

Bankhead, Tallulah

(Encyclopedia)Bankhead, Tallulah təlo͞oˈlə [key], 1903–68, American actress, b. Huntsville, Ala.; daughter of William Brockman Bankhead. After her debut in 1918, Bankhead had great success on the London stage...

Pinturicchio

(Encyclopedia)Pinturicchio pēntō– [key] [Ital.,=little painter], c.1454–1513, Umbrian painter whose real name was Bernardino di Betto. A prolific and facile painter, he was influenced by Perugino, with whom h...

Redfield, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Redfield, Robert, 1897–1958, American anthropologist and sociologist, b. Chicago, grad. Univ. of Chicago (B.A., 1920; Ph.D., 1928). He began teaching at the Univ. of Chicago in 1928, later becoming ...

starvation

(Encyclopedia)starvation, condition in which deprivation of food has forced the body to feed on itself. Causes are famine, fasting, malnutrition, or abnormalities of the mucosal lining of the digestive system. Fami...

Siebold, Philipp Franz van

(Encyclopedia)Siebold, Philipp Franz van fēˈlĭp fränts fen zēˈbôlt [key], 1796–1866, German naturalist and physician; son of A. E. von Siebold. He was noted for his studies of the natural history, ethnogra...

Rey, H. A.

(Encyclopedia)Rey, H. A., 1898–1977, German-American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. Hamburg as Hans Augusto Reyersbach. He and his wife, Margret Rey, 1906–1996, b. Hamburg as Margarete Elisabeth...

Perrault, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Perrault, Charles shärl pĕrōˈ [key], 1628–1703, French poet. His collections of eight fairy tales, Histoires ou contes du temps passé [stories or tales of olden times] (1697) gave classic form ...

Peshtigo

(Encyclopedia)Peshtigo pĕshˈtĭgōˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 3,154), Marinette co., NE Wis., on the Peshtigo River 6 mi (9.7 km) inland from its mouth on Green Bay; inc. 1903. Located in a dairying and lumbering r...

Riemenschneider, Tilman

(Encyclopedia)Riemenschneider, Tilman tĭlˈmän rēˈmənshnīˌdər [key], c.1460–1531, German Renaissance sculptor, who worked in stone and wood. He was in Würzburg by 1483. In 1520 he was made burgomaster, b...