Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron, 1871–1937, British physicist, b. New Zealand. Rutherford left New Zealand in 1895, having earned three degrees from the Univ. of New Zealand but having fail...

Gaelic literature

(Encyclopedia)Gaelic literature, literature in the native tongue of Ireland and Scotland. Since Scots Gaelic became separate from Irish Gaelic only in the 17th cent., the literature is conventionally divided into O...

science fiction

(Encyclopedia)science fiction, literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science fiction is a form of fantastic literature, many of the events recou...

Conservative party, Canadian political party

(Encyclopedia)Conservative party, in Canada. 1 Former Canadian political party that merged with the Progressive party to form the Progressive Conservative party. 2 Officially the Conservative party of Canada, polit...

Mandan, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Mandan mănˈdăn, –dən [key], indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Mandan were a...

Tecumseh

(Encyclopedia)Tecumseh tĭkŭmˈsē [key], 1768?–1813, chief of the Shawnee, b. probably in Clark co., Ohio. Among his people he became distinguished for his prowess in battle, but he opposed the practice of tort...

Schweitzer, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Schweitzer, Albert älˈbĕrt shvīˈtsər [key], 1875–1965, Alsatian theologian, musician, and medical missionary. Determined to become a medical missionary, he obtained a doctorate in medicine at ...

Plath, Sylvia

(Encyclopedia)Plath, Sylvia, 1932–63, American poet, b. Boston. Educated at Smith College and Cambridge, Plath published poems even as a child and won many academic and literary awards. Her first volume of poetry...

Piero della Francesca

(Encyclopedia)Piero della Francesca pyĕˈrō dĕlˈlä fränchāsˈkä [key], c.1420–1492, major Italian Renaissance painter, b. Borgo San Sepolcro (modern Sansepolcro). All his masterpieces were created in town...

Smith, Adam

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Adam, 1723–90, Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral ...