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Cogswell, Joseph Green

(Encyclopedia)Cogswell, Joseph Green kŏgzˈwĕl, –wəl [key], 1786–1871, American librarian and bibliographer, b. Ipswich, Mass. After studying abroad, Cogswell taught mineralogy and geology at Harvard and bec...

Vescovo, Victor Lance

(Encyclopedia)Vescovo, Victor Lance, 1966–, American private equity investor and adventurer, b. Dallas, Tex., M.B.A. Harvard, 1994. He was a principal at Lehman Brothers (1991–92), a senior manager at Bain and ...

Cox, Ross

(Encyclopedia)Cox, Ross, 1793–1853, American fur trader. He joined John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1811 and went to the Astoria post on the supply ship Beaver. He was active in the trade in the Columbia...

Stuart, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Stuart, Robert, 1785–1843, American explorer, b. Scotland. He emigrated (1807) to Canada and became a fur trader. He joined in John Jacob Astor's Astoria venture, and in 1812 he led the overland par...

Baer, George Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Baer, George Frederick bâr [key], 1842–1914, American financier, b. Somerset co., Pa. Baer became legal adviser to J. Pierpont Morgan and held many posts as a key figure in the railroad-and-coal em...

Billings, John Shaw

(Encyclopedia)Billings, John Shaw, 1838–1913, American surgeon and librarian, b. Indiana. In the Civil War he was medical inspector of the Army of the Potomac. After the war he was given charge of the Surgeon Gen...

Wistar, Isaac Jones

(Encyclopedia)Wistar, Isaac Jones, 1827–1905, American financier, b. Philadelphia; great-nephew of Caspar Wistar. His early manhood was spent adventurously in the West as a muleteer, trapper, and gold miner. In t...

Astoria

(Encyclopedia)Astoria ăstôrˈēə [key]. 1 Commercial, industrial, and residential section of NW Queens borough of New York City, SE N.Y.; settled in the 17th cent. as Hallet's Cove. It was renamed for John Jacob...

Hopkins, Mark, American railroad builder and merchant

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Mark, 1813–78, American railroad builder and merchant, b. Henderson, N.Y. A clerk in a village store and later a commission merchant in New York City, he was more than 35 years old when he ...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...