Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Eider, river, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Eider īˈdər [key], river, 117 mi (188 km) long, rising S of Kiel, N Germany, and flowing N to the Kiel Canal before turning west and meandering to the North Sea at Tönning. It is navigable for mos...

Finley, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Finley, Samuel, 1715–66, Presbyterian minister, president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), b. Ireland. He went to North America in 1734 and is believed to have studied under William Ten...

Newton, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Newton, Alfred, 1829–1907, English zoologist, b. Geneva. He studied (1854–65) ornithology in Lapland, Iceland, the West Indies, and North America and in 1866 became the first professor of zoology ...

Palmer Land

(Encyclopedia)Palmer Land, part of the Antarctic Peninsula, W Antarctica. Named by Americans after Nathaniel Palmer, who explored the area in 1820, Palmer Land (or Palmer Peninsula) referred to the entire Antarctic...

Zhuzhou

(Encyclopedia)Zhuzhou or Chuchow both: jo͞oˈjōˈ [key], town (1994 est. pop. 476,800), E central Hunan prov., China, on the Xiang River. It is a railroad center for lines running north-south and east-west and a ...

Catlin, George

(Encyclopedia)Catlin, George, 1796–1872, American traveler and artist, b. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Educated as a lawyer, he practiced in Philadelphia for two years but turned to art study and became a portrait painter i...

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(Encyclopedia)North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, N...

Vorarlberg

(Encyclopedia)Vorarlberg fōrˌärlˈbĕrkh [key], province (1991 pop. 331,472), 1,004 sq mi (2,600 sq km), extreme W Austria, bordering on Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany. Bregenz, on the eastern shore of ...

Great Basin

(Encyclopedia)Great Basin, semiarid, N section of the Basin and Range province, the intermontane plateau region of W United States and N Mexico. Lying mostly in Nevada and extending into California, Oregon, Idaho, ...

Flevoland

(Encyclopedia)Flevoland, province, 931 sq mi (2,412 sq km), central Netherlands, on the E shore of the Markermeer and IJsselmeer. Lelystad is the capital; other citie...