Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

478 results found

Vionnet, Madeleine

(Encyclopedia)Vionnet, Madeleine, 1876–1975, French fashion designer. She worked for Parisian and London dressmakers and designed for the Callot Soeurs and Jacques Doucet houses before opening her own studio in 1...

bookplate

(Encyclopedia)bookplate, label pasted in a book to indicate ownership, also called ex libris [Lat.,=from the books of]. The bookplate is usually of paper on which heraldic or other designs are engraved or printed. ...

Bigot, François

(Encyclopedia)Bigot, François fräNswäˈ bēgōˈ [key], 1703–77?, intendant of New France (1748–59), b. Bordeaux, France. At Louisburg, where he served (1739–45) as commissary, it has been said that he ind...

Zao Wou-Ki

(Encyclopedia)Zao Wou-Ki or Chao Wu-chi, 1920–2013, Chinese-French painter who combined a traditional Asian sensibility with Western abstraction. He studied ink painting and calligraphy as well as Western art tec...

Saint Gall, former Benedictine abbey, Switzerland

(Encyclopedia)Saint Gall, former Benedictine abbey, at St. Gall, Switzerland. Originating in a cell built c.614 by St. Gall, an Irish missionary (see Columban, Saint), it became an abbey under Charles Martel (8th c...

roller skating

(Encyclopedia)roller skating, gliding on a hard, smooth, durable surface on skates with rollers or wheels, in recent years has become a popular adult sport. Skates mounted on wooden rollers date from the 1860s, and...

San Juan Capistrano

(Encyclopedia)San Juan Capistrano săn wän kăpĭsträˈnō [key], city (1990 pop. 26,183), Orange co., S Calif.; inc. 1961. San Juan Capistrano has some manufactures, including aircraft parts, medical apparatus, ...

Shrirangapattana

(Encyclopedia)Shrirangapattana srēˌrŭngˌgəpŭtˈnə [key], town (1991 pop. 21,905), Karnataka state, S India, on an island in the Kaveri River. There are Hindu monuments, some built in the 13th cent. Most of t...

telegraph

(Encyclopedia)telegraph, term originally applied to any device or system for distant communication by means of visible or audible signals, now commonly restricted to electrically operated devices. Attempts at long-...

Djenné

(Encyclopedia)Djenné or Jenné both: jĕnāˈ [key], town, S central Mali, on the Bani River. It is an agricultural market center. The nearby, pre-Islamic ruins of Jenné-Jeno, which at its height may have been a ...