Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

Stamitz, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Stamitz, Johann yōˈhän shtäˈmĭts [key], 1717–57, Bohemian-German composer. Stamitz came to Mannheim (1741) and became (1745) concertmaster of the Mannheim orchestra. He made it the best in Eur...

school of Paris

(Encyclopedia)school of Paris. The center of international art until after World War II, Paris was a mecca for artists who flocked there to participate in the most advanced aesthetic currents of their time. The sch...

Carpenter, Malcolm Scott

(Encyclopedia)Carpenter, Malcolm Scott, 1925–2013, American astronaut, b. Boulder, Colo. The second American to go into orbital flight around the earth, he made his historic and suspenseful flight on May 24, 1962...

Bancroft, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Bancroft, Edward, 1744–1821, spy in the American Revolution, b. Westfield, Mass. He studied medicine and natural history, producing a book (1769) on Guiana's flora and fauna, a defense of the coloni...

Turner, Joseph Mallord William

(Encyclopedia)Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 1775–1851, English landscape painter, b. London. Turner was the foremost English romantic painter and the most original of English landscape artists; in watercolor he...

Gregory Nazianzen, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gregory Nazianzen, Saint nāzēănˈzĭn [key], c.330–390, Cappadocian theologian, Doctor of the Church, one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church. He is sometimes called Gregory of Nazianzus and ...

Giedion, Sigfried

(Encyclopedia)Giedion, Sigfried zēkhˈfrēd gēˈdēôn [key], 1883–1968, Swiss historian of architecture. Giedion was a student of Heinrich Wölfflin and close associate of Walter Gropius. He was a key figure o...

Geddes, Sir Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Geddes, Sir Patrick gĕdˈĭs [key], 1854–1932, Scottish biologist and sociologist, distinguished especially in town planning. He received his biological training in T. H. Huxley's laboratory; from ...