Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Nolde, Emil

(Encyclopedia)Nolde, Emil āˈmēl nôlˈdə [key], 1867–1956, German expressionist painter and graphic artist. His original name was Emil Hansen. After teaching in Switzerland (1892–98), Nolde traveled through...

Chandos, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Chandos, Sir John shănˈdŏs, chănˈ– [key], d. 1370, English soldier and administrator of English territories in France. A friend of Edward the Black Prince, he won distinction in the Hundred Yea...

pyroxene

(Encyclopedia)pyroxene pīˈrŏksēn [key], name given to members of a group of widely distributed rock minerals called metasilicates in which magnesium, iron, and calcium, often with aluminum, sodium, lithium, man...

Watts

(Encyclopedia)Watts, residential section of south central Los Angeles. Named after C. H. Watts, a Pasadena realtor, the section became part of Los Angeles in 1926. Artist Simon Rodia's celebrated Watts Towers are t...

Scholes, Myron Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Scholes, Myron Samuel, 1941–, Canadian-American economist, b. Timmins, Ont., Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1969. He was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago (1968–83) and at Stanford (emeritus since 1996...

Volta

(Encyclopedia)Volta vólˈtə [key], river, c.290 mi (470 km) long, formed in central Ghana, W Africa, by the confluence of the Black Volta (or Mouhon, c.840 mi/1,350 km long) and the White Volta (or Nakambe, c.450...

walnut

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Black walnut, Juglans nigra walnut, common name for some members of the Juglandaceae, a family of chiefly deciduous, resinous trees characterized by large and aromatic compound leaves. Species...

hogback

(Encyclopedia)hogback, sharp-crested ridge with steep slopes on both sides, formed by the erosion of steeply tilted rock layers. Hogbacks are commonly formed along the eroded flanks of large, tightly folded anticli...

cowpea

(Encyclopedia)cowpea, black-eyed pea, or black-eyed bean, annual legume (Vigna sinensis) of the pulse family. Introduced in the early 18th cent. from the Old World to the S United States, it has become a staple of...

Cullen, Countee

(Encyclopedia)Cullen, Countee kounˈtēˈ [key], 1903–46, American poet, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. 1925, M.A. Harvard, 1926. A major writer of the Harlem Renaissance—a flowering of black artistic a...