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philately

(Encyclopedia)philately fĭlătˈəlē [key], collection and study of postage stamps and of materials relating to their history and use. Collecting stamps began soon after the first postage stamp was issued in 1840...

Babylonian captivity

(Encyclopedia)Babylonian captivity, in the history of Israel, the period from the fall of Jerusalem (586 b.c.) to the reconstruction in Palestine of a new Jewish state (after 538 b.c.). After the capture of the cit...

Rhodes, James Ford

(Encyclopedia)Rhodes, James Ford rōdz [key], 1848–1927, American historian, b. Ohio City (now part of Cleveland). While studying in Europe he visited ironworks and steelworks in Germany and Great Britain, and up...

Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de

(Encyclopedia)Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de zhäN shärl lāônärˈ sēmôNdˈ də sēsmôNdēˈ [key], 1773–1842, Swiss historian, economist, and critic. A member of the circle of Mme de Staël, he...

Stiles, Ezra

(Encyclopedia)Stiles, Ezra, 1727–95, American theologian and educator, b. North Haven, Conn., grad. Yale, 1746. He studied theology, was ordained in 1749, and tutored (1749–55) at Yale. Resigning from the minis...

Bryce, James Bryce, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Bryce, James Bryce, 1st Viscount, 1838–1922, British historian, statesman, and diplomat, b. Belfast. After his education at the Univ. of Glasgow and at Oxford, he practiced law in London for a short...

Breasted, James Henry

(Encyclopedia)Breasted, James Henry brĕsˈtĭd [key], 1865–1935, American Egyptologist, b. Rockford, Ill., grad. North Central College, 1888, M.A. Yale, 1891, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1894. He began teaching at th...

Wheaton, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Wheaton, Henry, 1785–1848, American jurist and diplomat, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Rhode Island College (now Brown), 1802. After translating the Code Napoléon into English, he practiced law, held ...

genealogy

(Encyclopedia)genealogy jēˌnēŏlˈəjē, –ălˈ–, jĕ– [key], the study of family lineage. Genealogies have existed since ancient times. Family lineage was originally transmitted through oral tradition and...

Hume, David

(Encyclopedia)Hume, David hyo͞om [key], 1711–76, Scottish philosopher and historian. Educated at Edinburgh, he lived (1734–37) in France, where he finished his first philosophical work, A Treatise of Human Nat...