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Granjon, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Granjon, Robert grănˈjən, Fr. rōbĕrˈ gräNzhôNˈ [key], fl. 1545–88, French designer of type and printer. He began his work in Paris and afterward worked in Lyons, Antwerp, and Rome. The type...

Fortune, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fortune, Robert, 1813–80, British botanist. He traveled in Asia for the Royal Horticultural Society and later for the East India Company and brought back to England a number of chrysanthemums, the J...

Fulton, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fulton, Robert, 1765–1815, American inventor, engineer, and painter, b. near Lancaster, Pa. He was a man remarkable for his many talents and his mechanical genius. An expert gunsmith at the time of ...

Garnier, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Garnier, Robert gärnyāˈ [key], 1534?–1590, French dramatic poet. He wrote mainly closet dramas in the classical manner of Seneca. Les Juives [the Jewish women] (1583), based on the Bible, is per...

Erskine, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, Robert, 1735–80, geographer and surveyor general to the American Revolutionary army, b. Dunfermline, Scotland. His several hundred detailed maps of the region W of the Hudson River, showing...

FitzRoy, Robert

(Encyclopedia)FitzRoy, Robert, 1805–65, British naval officer, meteorologist, and hydrologist. Given (1829) temporary command of the HMS Beagle, he completed a survey of the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fue...

Frank, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Robert, 1924–2019, Swiss-American photographer and filmmaker, b. Zürich. He immigrated to the United States in 1947 and became a citizen in 1963. One of the 20th century's most influential p...

Huber, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Huber, Robert ho͞oˈbər [key], 1937–, German biochemist. After receiving his doctorate at Munich Technical Univ., he worked both there and at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. With Hartmu...

Hunter, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Hunter, Robert, d. 1734, royal governor of New York and New Jersey (1709–19), b. Ayrshire, Scotland. His administration was notably successful. He maintained a vigorous campaign against the French a...

Dinwiddie, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Dinwiddie, Robert, 1693–1770, colonial governor of Virginia (1751–58), b. near Glasgow, Scotland. He was collector of customs (1727–38) for Bermuda and surveyor general (1738–51) for the Baham...

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