Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

West, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)West, Benjamin, 1738–1820, American historical painter who worked in England. He was born in Springfield, Pa., in a house that is now a memorial museum at Swarthmore College. After some instruction ...

Kiritimati

(Encyclopedia)Kiritimati kərĭsˈməs [key], largest atoll in the Pacific (1990 pop. 2,537), 222 sq mi (575 sq km), in the Line Islands, one of the island groups that compose the Republic of Kiribati. It was previ...

Taizé Community

(Encyclopedia)Taizé Community tāzāˈ [key], ecumenical Christian community based in Taizē, Burgundy, France. The community was founded by Roger Schutz, 1915–2005, a Swiss Protestant theologian who came to Tai...

Normans

(Encyclopedia)Normans, designation for the Northmen, or Norsemen, who conquered Normandy in the 10th cent. and adopted Christianity and the customs and language of France. Abandoning piracy and raiding, they adopte...

Keyes, Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Keyes, Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron kēz [key], 1872–1945, British admiral. In World War I he achieved his greatest fame as commander of the Dover patrol when he raided Zeebrugge and Ostend ...

Robert Guiscard

(Encyclopedia)Robert Guiscard gēskärˈ [key], c.1015–1085, Norman conqueror of S Italy, a son of Tancred de Hauteville (see Normans). Robert joined (c.1046) his brothers in S Italy and fought with them to expel...

Dewar, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Dewar, Sir James dyo͞oˈər [key], 1842–1923, British chemist and physicist, b. Scotland. He was professor of chemistry (from 1877) at the Royal Institution, London, and later was director of the D...

Digby, Sir Kenelm

(Encyclopedia)Digby, Sir Kenelm, 1603–65, English author and man of affairs. In 1628 he conducted a highly successful privateering raid against a French and Venetian fleet at Scanderoon (now Iskenderun, Turkey). ...

Abercrombie, Sir Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Abercrombie, Sir Patrick, 1879–1957, British architect and town planner. Professor of civil design at the Univ. of Liverpool from 1915 to 1935 and of town planning at the Univ. of London after 1935,...

Dyer, Sir Edward

(Encyclopedia)Dyer, Sir Edward, 1543?–1607, Elizabethan poet. A friend of Sidney and Spenser, he was celebrated in his day as an elegist. His best-known poem is “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is.” ...