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Brown, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Robert, 1773–1858, Scottish botanist and botanical explorer. In 1801 he went as a naturalist on one of Matthew Flinders's expeditions to Australia, returning (1805) to England with valuable c...

Vassar College

(Encyclopedia)Vassar College văsˈər [key], at Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered 1861 by Matthew Vassar, opened 1865 as Vassar Female College, renamed 1867. A leading institution of higher education fo...

San Mateo

(Encyclopedia)San Mateo săn mətāˈō [key], city (1990 pop. 85,486), San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1894. It is a commercial and retail center with some high-technology manufacturing. San Ma...

Lateran Council, Second

(Encyclopedia)Lateran Council, Second, 1139, 10th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convened at the Lateran Palace, Rome, by Pope Innocent II. The council attempted to heal the wounds left by the sch...

Scherchen, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Scherchen, Hermann hĕrˈmän shĕrˈkhĕn [key], 1891–1966, German conductor. Scherchen was largely self-taught. He played viola in the Berlin Philharmonic (1907–10) and made his debut there as a...

Japanese spaniel

(Encyclopedia)Japanese spaniel, breed of dainty, alert toy dog probably originating in ancient China and developed in Japan over many centuries. It stands about 9 in. (22.9 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs about...

Lord's Prayer

(Encyclopedia)Lord's Prayer or Our Father, the principal Christian prayer that Jesus in the New Testament (Mat. 6.9–13; Luke 11.2–4) taught his followers, beginning, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your na...

Wandering Jew, in legend

(Encyclopedia)Wandering Jew, in literary and popular legend, a Jew who mocked or mistreated Jesus while he was on his way to the cross and who was condemned therefore to a life of wandering on earth until Judgment ...

Watt, James

(Encyclopedia)Watt, James, 1736–1819, Scottish inventor. While working at the Univ. of Glasgow as an instrument maker, Watt was asked to repair a model of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine. He devised improvements t...

Chapman, John Jay

(Encyclopedia)Chapman, John Jay, 1862–1933, American essayist and poet, b. New York City, grad. Harvard, 1885. He was admitted to the bar in 1888, but after 10 years abandoned law for literature. Active in the an...