Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

North, Sir Dudley

(Encyclopedia)North, Sir Dudley, 1641–91, English merchant and economist. Agent for the Turkey Company in Constantinople from 1662 to 1680, he returned to England a wealthy man and was commissioner of the customs...

Ashley, Laura

(Encyclopedia)Ashley, Laura, 1925–85, British fashion designer and manufacturer. After serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service, she and her husband founded a company to produce silkscreened placemats, scarves,...

Quiriguá

(Encyclopedia)Quiriguá kērēgwäˈ, kērēwäˈ [key], city of the Classic epoch of the Maya, E Guatemala. It is famous for its zoomorphics. Its stone steles have fine hieroglyphs. Near the ruins the United Fruit...

Law, John

(Encyclopedia)Law, John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier in France, b. Edinburgh. After killing a man in a duel (1694) he fled to Amsterdam, where he studied banking. Returning to Scotland (1700), he proposed to Pa...

Allan, Sir Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Allan, Sir Hugh, 1810–82, Canadian financier and shipowner, b. Scotland. He emigrated to Canada in 1826, was employed by a large shipbuilding company in Montreal, and later founded the Allan Line of...

Corning

(Encyclopedia)Corning, city (2020 pop. 10,551), Steuben co., S N.Y., on the Chemung River, in a dairy and vineyard region; settled 1788, inc. as a city 1890. The glas...

Bache, Jules Semon

(Encyclopedia)Bache, Jules Semon, 1861–1944, American banker and art collector, b. New York City. He made an immense fortune on Wall St., organized the banking firm of J. S. Bache and Company, and was director of...

Thayer, Eli

(Encyclopedia)Thayer, Eli, 1819–99, American abolitionist, b. Medon, Mass. He was a Free-Soiler in the Massachusetts legislature (1853–54), organized the New England Emigrant Aid Company for sending antislavery...

Barentsburg

(Encyclopedia)Barentsburg bäˈrəntsbo͝org [key], town, Spitsbergen island, Svalbard, Norway. Though tourism is increasingly economically significant, Barentsburg was originally a coal-mining settlement, establis...

Bartlett, John

(Encyclopedia)Bartlett, John, 1820–1905, American compiler and publisher, b. Plymouth, Mass. While he worked in his university book store in Cambridge, he compiled the invaluable Familiar Quotations (1855), which...

Browse by Subject