Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jacobi, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Jacobi, Abraham jəkōˈbē [key], 1830–1919, American pediatrician, founder of pediatrics in the United States, b. Westphalia, Germany, M.D. Bonn, 1851. He was imprisoned for participating in the R...

Baal-peor

(Encyclopedia)Baal-peor bāˈəl-pēˈôr [key], in the Bible, local divinity (the Baal) of Peor. According to the Book of Numbers, the Hebrews stayed at Shittim during the wilderness wanderings. While there, Hebre...

Macphail, Agnes Campbell

(Encyclopedia)Macphail, Agnes Campbell məkfālˈ [key], 1890–1954, Canadian legislator, b. Ontario. She was elected (1921) to the Canadian House of Commons as a representative of the United Farmers of Ontario an...

Lynchburg

(Encyclopedia)Lynchburg, independent city (1990 pop. 66,049), in but administratively not a part of Campbell co., central Va., on the James River; settled 1757, inc. as a city 1852. It is a trade center and tobacco...

Key, Ellen

(Encyclopedia)Key, Ellen kā [key], 1849–1926, Swedish author, critic, and ideologue. Believing that women are primarily fitted for motherhood, she deplored feminist claims to equality on the labor market. Her id...

Kingston, Maxine Hong

(Encyclopedia)Kingston, Maxine Hong, 1940–, American writer, b. Stockton, Calif., grad. Univ. of California, Berkeley (1962). The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she explores the experience of living astride two ...

Burbidge, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Burbidge, Margaret, 1925–2020, Anglo-American astronomer, b. England as Eleanor Margaret Peachey. Burbidge; her husband, Geoffrey Burbidge; William Fowler; and Sir Fred Hoyle showed (1956) how heavi...

Adams, Maude

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Maude, 1872–1953, American actress, b. Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father's name was Kiskadden, but she used her mother's maiden name. She began acting at an early age and became leading lady t...

Bonheur, Rosa

(Encyclopedia)Bonheur, Rosa bənörˈ [key], 1822–99, French painter, mainly of animals. She was a pupil of her father, Raymond Bonheur. Her paintings were regularly exhibited in the Salon from 1841. Bonheur's in...

Yacine, Kateb

(Encyclopedia)Yacine, Kateb käˈtāb yäˈsēn [key], 1929–89, Algerian author. In 1945 he moved to Paris and afterward traveled in Europe and Asia. His most famous work is the novel Nedjma (1957, tr. 1961, new ...

Browse by Subject