Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bank of England

(Encyclopedia)Bank of England, central bank and note-issuing institution of Great Britain. Popularly known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, its main office stands on the street of that name in London. The ba...

Economic Community of West African States

(Encyclopedia)Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organization established in 1975 to increase economic cooperation and development in West Africa. Members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C...

North West

(Encyclopedia)North West, province (2011 pop. 3,509,953), 40,495 sq mi (104,882 sq km), N central South Africa. In 1994, under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, North West was created from parts of the fo...

Key West

(Encyclopedia)Key West, city (1990 pop. 24,832), seat of Monroe co., S Fla., on an island at the southwestern extremity of the Florida Keys; inc. 1828. About 150 mi (240 km) from Miami (but only 90 mi/145 km from C...

Middle West

(Encyclopedia)Middle West: see Midwest.

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 ...

West, Franz

(Encyclopedia)West, Franz, 1947–2012, Austrian artist, known especially for his eccentric and fanciful sculpture, studied Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna. He first became known in the 1970s for his “adaptives,â...

West, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)West, Jerry (Jerome Alan West), 1938–, American basketball player, b. Cheylan, W.Va. One of the game's great shooting guards, he led West Virginia Univ. to the 1959 National Collegiate Athletic Asso...

West, Jessamyn

(Encyclopedia)West, Jessamyn, 1907–84, American novelist, b. Indiana. A Quaker herself, her most famous novel is The Friendly Persuasion (1945), about the conflicts felt by a Quaker farm family during the Civil W...

West, Mae

(Encyclopedia)West, Mae, 1893–1980, American stage and movie comedienne, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Mary Jane West. The unparalleled mistress of double entendre, West began in burlesque and continued in vaudeville, st...