Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

stove

(Encyclopedia)stove, device used for heating or for cooking food. The stove was long regarded as a cooking device supplementary to the fireplace, near which it stood; its stovepipe led into the fireplace chimney. I...

Delaware, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Delaware dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], English name given several closely related Native American groups of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American langua...

Taylor, George

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, George, 1716–81, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Ireland. He settled in Pennsylvania (1736), where he became a manufacturer of iron...

Irvine, William

(Encyclopedia)Irvine, William ûrˈvĭn [key], 1741–1804, American soldier, b. Ireland. He studied medicine in Ireland and after 1764 practiced in Carlisle, Pa. He was called to service as colonel of a Pennsylvan...

Reed, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Reed, Joseph, 1741–85, American Revolutionary political leader and army officer, b. Trenton, N.J. He studied law, was admitted (1763) to the bar, and then went to London to study at the Middle Templ...

Mennonites

(Encyclopedia)Mennonites mĕnˈnənīts [key], descendants of the Dutch and Swiss evangelical Anabaptists of the 16th cent. The name Mennonite is derived from Menno Simons (c.1496–1561), Dutch reformer and org...

Biddle, Clement

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, Clement, 1740–1814, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Philadelphia. Early in the war, he helped organize the “Quaker Blues,” a company of volunteers. He later served as deputy quarterma...

tulip

(Encyclopedia)tulip [Pers.,=turban], any plant of the large genus Tulipa, hardy, bulbous-rooted members of the family Liliaceae (lily family), indigenous to north temperate regions of the Old World from the Mediter...

Lloyd, David

(Encyclopedia)Lloyd, David, c.1656–1731, political leader in colonial Pennsylvania, b. Wales. Having been commissioned attorney general of Pennsylvania by William Penn, Lloyd arrived in Philadelphia in 1686. He l...

Browse by Subject