Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kieft, Willem

(Encyclopedia)Kieft, Willem vĭlˈəm kēft [key], 1597–1647, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. Arriving in New Amsterdam in 1638 to succeed Wouter Van Twiller, Kieft immediately assumed absolute control....

ailanthus

(Encyclopedia)ailanthus ālănˈthəs [key], any tree of the genus Ailanthus, native to the warm regions of Asia and Australia. Ailanthus wood is sometimes used for cabinetmaking and for the manufacture of charcoal...

Boulanger, Nadia

(Encyclopedia)Boulanger, Nadia bo͞oläNzhāˈ [key], 1887–1979, French conductor and musician, b. Paris. Boulanger was considered an outstanding teacher of composition. She studied at the Paris Conservatory, wh...

Hitchcock, Ethan Allen

(Encyclopedia)Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, 1835–1909, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1898–1907), b. Mobile, Ala. He was appointed minister to Russia in 1897 but was called into McKinley's cabinet the next year. Und...

Tewksbury

(Encyclopedia)Tewksbury, town (1990 pop. 27,266), Middlesex co., NE Mass.; settled 1637, set off from Billerica and inc. 1734. It was once the site of a Native American settlement. Primarily residential, the town h...

Cooper, James Fenimore

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789–1851, American novelist, b. Burlington, N.J., as James Cooper. He was the first important American writer to draw on the subjects and landscape of his native land in ord...

Langlade, Charles Michel de

(Encyclopedia)Langlade, Charles Michel de shärl mēshĕlˈ də [key], 1729–1800, pioneer in present-day Wisconsin and soldier, b. Mackinac region, now in Mich.; son of a trader, Augustin Langlade, who establishe...

Kalispel

(Encyclopedia)Kalispel pŏnˌdərāˈ [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Salishan branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Kalispel were given...

Crook, George

(Encyclopedia)Crook, George, 1828–90, U.S. general, b. near Dayton, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1852. During the Civil War, Crook commanded a regiment of Ohio volunteers as colonel. After the war he operated so succe...

Pennacook

(Encyclopedia)Pennacook pĕnˈəko͝ok [key], group of Native North Americans of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Although of the Eastern Woodlands ...