Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Smibert, John

(Encyclopedia)Smibert or Smybert, John both: smīˈbərt [key], 1688–1751, American portrait painter, b. Scotland, the first skillful painter in New England. After his apprenticeship to an Edinburgh house painter...

Adams, Ansel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Ansel, 1902–84, American photographer, b. San Francisco. He began taking photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite Valley, with which his name is permanently associated, becoming profession...

Piano, Renzo

(Encyclopedia)Piano, Renzo rĕntˈsō pyäˈnō [key], 1937–, Italian architect, b. Genoa. Piano attended architecture school at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1964. The prolific Piano has been lauded for respo...

Lowell

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, city (1990 pop. 103,439), a seat of Middlesex co., NE Mass., at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers; settled 1653, set off from Chelmsford 1826, inc. as a city 1836. High-techno...

Pesaro

(Encyclopedia)Pesaro pāˈzärō [key], city (1991 pop. 88,713), capital of Pesaro e Urbino prov., in the Marche region, central Italy, on the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Foglia River. It is an agricultural an...

Brongniart, Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Brongniart, Alexandre brôNyärˈ [key], 1770–1847, French geologist, mineralogist, and chemist. As director of the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1800, he was responsible for its international fam...

Cotman, John Sell

(Encyclopedia)Cotman, John Sell kŏtˈmən [key], 1782–1842, English landscape painter and etcher. He was a leading representative of the Norwich school. Cotman studied in London and in 1806 settled in Norwich wh...

Arezzo

(Encyclopedia)Arezzo ärĕtˈtsō [key], city, capital of Arezzo prov., Tuscany, central Italy. It is an agricultural trade center and has machine, clothing, gold, and jewelry industrie...

Persian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Persian art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in the region of Asia traditionally known as Persia and now called Iran. Bounded by fierce mountains and deserts, the high plateau of...

Macon

(Encyclopedia)Macon māˈkən, māˈkŏn [key], city (1990 pop. 106,612), seat of Bibb co., central Ga., at the head of navigation on the Ocmulgee River; inc. 1823. It is the industrial, processing, and shipping ce...