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White Plains

(Encyclopedia)White Plains, city (1990 pop. 48,718), seat of Westchester co., SE N.Y., N of New York City; settled by Puritans from Connecticut in 1683; inc. as a village 1866, as a city 1916. The primary employmen...

Damrosch, Leopold

(Encyclopedia)Damrosch, Leopold, 1832–85, German conductor. After taking a degree in medicine, he became (1857) first violinist in the ducal orchestra at Weimar, where he was a friend of Liszt and Wagner. In 1871...

Hone, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Hone, Philip, 1780–1851, American diarist and politician, b. New York City. With his brother he built up a successful auctioneering business, which he later abandoned for politics. He was mayor of N...

Pope, John Russell

(Encyclopedia)Pope, John Russell, 1874–1937, American architect, b. New York City, studied at the College of the City of New York and the School of Mines, Columbia (Ph.B., 1894). He won a fellowship (1895) to the...

De Lancey

(Encyclopedia)De Lancey də lănˈsē [key], family of political leaders, soldiers, and merchants prominent in colonial New York. Étienne De Lancey or Stephen De Lancey, 1663–1741, b. Caen, France, was among the...

Van Cortlandt, Jacobus

(Encyclopedia)Van Cortlandt, Jacobus jəkōˈbəs văn kôrtˈlənd [key], 1658–1739, colonial American merchant, b. New Amsterdam (later New York City); brother of Stephen Van Cortlandt. He served (1710 and 1719...

Provoost, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Provoost, Samuel prōˈvōst [key], 1742–1815, first Episcopal bishop of New York, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1758. He studied at Cambridge and in 1766 was ordained...

Fokine, Michel

(Encyclopedia)Fokine, Michel mēshĕlˈ fōkēnˈ, Rus. fôˈkyĭn [key], 1880–1942, Russian-American choreographer and ballet dancer, b. Russia. He studied at the Imperial Ballet School (1889–98) and danced at...

New Britain, island, Papua New Guinea

(Encyclopedia)New Britain, volcanic island (1990 pop. 315,649), c.14,600 sq mi (37,810 sq km), SW Pacific, largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago and part of Papua New Guinea, in which it forms two provinces (E...

Moses, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Moses, Robert, 1888–1981, U.S. public official, b. New Haven, Conn. He was appointed (1919) by Alfred E. Smith to the committee to study and revamp New York state government machinery, became (1924)...