Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron gārăNˈ [key], 1774–1833, French painter. He won enthusiastic recognition in 1799 for his Marius Sextus (Louvre). A defender of the classicism of J. L. David, he b...

Fontaine, Pierre François Léonard

(Encyclopedia)Fontaine, Pierre François Léonard pyĕr fräNswäˈ lāōnärˈ fôNtĕnˈ [key], 1762–1853, French architect. He was known chiefly for the work which, beginning in 1794, he did jointly with Charl...

Janssen, Pierre Jules César

(Encyclopedia)Janssen, Pierre Jules César pyĕr zhül sāzärˈ zhäNsĕnˈ [key], 1824–1907, French astronomer. In 1857–58, in Peru, he worked on the determination of the magnetic equator; in the Azores (1867...

Du Pont, Pierre Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Du Pont, Pierre Samuel, 1870–1954, American industrialist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. Du Pont worked as a chemist with the family's company, helping to d...

de Gennes, Pierre-Gilles

(Encyclopedia)de Gennes, Pierre-Gilles, 1932–2007, French physicist, Ph.D. Center for Nuclear Studies at Saclay, France, 1958. He was a professor at the Univ. of Paris, Orsay, from 1961 to 1971, when he joined th...

De Smet, Pierre Jean

(Encyclopedia)De Smet, Pierre Jean pyĕr zhäN də smĕtˈ [key], 1801–73, Jesuit missionary in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, b. Belgium. He emigrated to the United States in 1821, served his novitiate in Florissan...

Dumont, Pierre Étienne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Dumont, Pierre Étienne Louis pyĕr ātyĕnˈ lwē dümôNˈ [key], 1759–1829, Swiss jurist and political writer. Dumont knew Mirabeau well and wrote many of his speeches. His Souvenirs sur Mirabeau...

Daru, Pierre Antoine, Comte

(Encyclopedia)Daru, Pierre Antoine, Comte pyĕr äNtwänˈ kôNt därüˈ [key], 1767–1829, French soldier, administrator, statesman, and writer. He served in the French Revolutionary Wars, was imprisoned during ...

Chauveau, Pierre Joseph Olivier

(Encyclopedia)Chauveau, Pierre Joseph Olivier pyĕr zhôzĕfˈ ôlēvyāˈ shōvōˈ [key], 1820–90, French Canadian educator and politician, prime minister of Quebec (1867–73), b. Quebec. He became superintend...

Esnambuc, Pierre Belain d'

(Encyclopedia)Esnambuc or Énambuc, Pierre Belain d' both: pyĕr bəlăN dānäNbükˈ [key], 1585–1636, French pioneer in the West Indies. Seeking to recoup his family fortune by privateering in the West Indies,...

Browse by Subject