Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

guitar

(Encyclopedia)guitar, musical instrument related to the lute, modern guitars normally having six strings that are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick. Earlier versions had pairs of strings like the lut...

Webern, Anton von

(Encyclopedia)Webern, Anton von änˈtōn fən vāˈbərn [key], 1883–1945, Austrian composer and conductor; pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. He conducted theater orchestras in Prague and in various German cities unti...

Horowitz, Vladimir

(Encyclopedia)Horowitz, Vladimir hôrˈōwĭts [key], 1904–89, Russian-American virtuoso pianist, b. Kiev. Horowitz studied at the Kiev Conservatory. After a Russian debut at the age of 17, he appeared with overw...

Williams, Eleazer

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Eleazer ĕlēāˈzər [key], c.1787–1858, missionary among Native North Americans. He was the son of Thomas Williams, a St. Regis Native American chief, and a white woman; he was educated ...

Fort Mims

(Encyclopedia)Fort Mims, temporary stockade near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. It was the scene of a massacre (Aug. 30, 1813); William Weatherford led a Native American force in the killing of...

Algonquian

(Encyclopedia)Algonquian ălgŏngˈkēən, –kwēən [key], branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic family of North America. See Native American languages. ...

Collinsville

(Encyclopedia)Collinsville, city (2020 pop. 24,366), Madison co., SW Ill.; settled 1817, inc. 1872. Once a coal-mining center, the city now has food-products and clot...

saxifrage

(Encyclopedia)saxifrage săkˈsĭfrĭj [key], common name for several members of the Saxifragaceae, a family of widely varying herbs, shrubs, and small trees of cosmopolitan distribution. They are found especially ...

Eggan, Fred Russell

(Encyclopedia)Eggan, Fred Russell ĕgˈgən [key], 1906–91, American anthropologist, b. Seattle, grad. Univ. of Chicago (Ph.B., 1927; A.M., 1928; Ph.D., 1933). A member of the faculty of the Univ. of Chicago from...

Anderson, Laurie

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Laurie, 1947–, American performance artist, b. Chicago. Originally a sculptor, she was influenced by Philip Glass and other avant-garde composers in the early 1970s and soon turned to the ...

Browse by Subject