Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Backus, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Backus, Isaac băkˈəs [key], 1724–1806, American clergyman, leader among New England Baptists and a champion of religious freedom, b. Norwich, Conn. Converted in the Great Awakening, he joined the...

Villari, Pasquale

(Encyclopedia)Villari, Pasquale päskwäˈlā vēlˈlärē [key], 1826–1917, Italian historian and statesman. He took part in the Revolution of 1848, served in the legislative chamber (1867–82), and was ministe...

Winckelmann, Johann Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Winckelmann, Johann Joachim yōˈhän yōäˈkhĭm vĭngˈkəlmän [key], 1717–68, German classical archaeologist and historian of ancient art, in which field he was a noted authority. A convert to ...

Texas, University of

(Encyclopedia)Texas, University of, main campus at Austin; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1881, opened 1883. Medical facilities include health science centers with medical schools at Houston and San Anto...

North, Douglass Cecil

(Encyclopedia)North, Douglass Cecil, 1920–2015, American economic historian, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1952. North was on the faculty at the Univ. of Washington, Seattle (1950–83...

migrant labor

(Encyclopedia)migrant labor, term applied in the United States to laborers who travel from place to place harvesting crops that must be picked as soon as they ripen. Although migrant labor patterns exist in other p...

Huron, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Huron hyo͝orˈänˌ [key], confederation of four Native North American groups who spoke the Wyandot language, which belongs to the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native Am...

Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de

(Encyclopedia)Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de fränthēsˈkō väsˈkāth dā kōrōnäˈᵺō [key], c.1510–1554, Spanish explorer. He went to Mexico with Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and in 1538 was made governor...

tornado

(Encyclopedia)tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and whe...

Laidler, Harry Wellington

(Encyclopedia)Laidler, Harry Wellington lādˈlər [key], 1884–1970, American economist and Socialist leader, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Wesleyan Univ., 1907, Brooklyn Law School, 1910, Ph.D. Columbia, 1914. A foun...