Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Garrett, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Garrett, Thomas, 1789–1871, American abolitionist, b. Upper Darby, Pa. A Quaker, he joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1818. At Wilmington, Del., where he became a hardware merchant and to...

McKeesport

(Encyclopedia)McKeesport məkēzˈpôrt [key], city (1990 pop. 26,016), Allegheny co., SW Pa., in hilly terrain at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers; settled 1755, inc. as a city 1890. An in...

Bryn Mawr College

(Encyclopedia)Bryn Mawr College, at Bryn Mawr, Pa; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; opened 1885 by the Society of Friends, with a bequest from Joseph W. Taylor of Burlington, N.J. Modeled on a group...

Brainerd, David

(Encyclopedia)Brainerd, David brāˈnərd [key], 1718–47, missionary to the Native Americans, b. Haddam, Conn. Licensed to preach in 1742, he spent his brief years among the Native Americans, first in New York an...

bluestone

(Encyclopedia)bluestone, common name for the blue, crystalline heptahydrate of cupric sulfate called chalcanthite, a minor ore of copper. It also refers to a fine-grained, light to dark colored blue-gray sandstone....

Abbey, Edwin Austin

(Encyclopedia)Abbey, Edwin Austin, 1852–1911, American illustrator and painter, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Employed by Harper & Brothers, he was sent to England, wh...

Delaware, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Delaware dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], river, c.280 mi (450 km) long, rising in the Catskill Mts., SE N.Y., in east and west branches, which meet at Hancock. It flows SE along the New York–Pennsylvan...

Henri, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Henri, Robert hĕnˈrī [key], 1865–1929, American painter and teacher, b. Cincinnati as Robert Henry Cozad. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1888 he went to Paris, where ...

Reading, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Reading. rĕdˈĭng [key] 1 Town (1990 pop. 22,539), Middlesex co., NE Mass., a suburb of Boston; settled 1639, set off from Lynn and inc. 1644. Printing is the major industry. A 17th-century tavern i...

Davis, John

(Encyclopedia)Davis or Davys, John, 1550?–1605, English navigator. He made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1585, continuing the work of Martin Frobisher. On this voyage he discovered Cumber...

Browse by Subject