Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

John, Augustus Edwin

(Encyclopedia)John, Augustus Edwin, 1879–1961, British painter and etcher, b. Wales. John studied at the Slade School, London. A leading portrait painter, he had many important sitters, among them Queen Elizabeth...

Chateaugay

(Encyclopedia)Chateaugay shătˈəgē, –gāˌ [key], river, c.50 mi (80 km) long, rising in Chateaugay Lake in the Adirondacks, NE N.Y., and flowing through Quebec to empty into the St. Lawrence 10 mi (16 km) bel...

Parkman, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Parkman, Francis, 1823–93, American historian, b. Boston. In 1846, Parkman started a journey along the Oregon Trail to improve his health and study the Native Americans. On his return to Boston he c...

feminism

(Encyclopedia)feminism, movement for the political, social, and educational equality of women with men; the movement has occurred mainly in Europe and the United States. It has its roots in the humanism of the 18th...

Pinyin

(Encyclopedia)Pinyin pĭnˈyĭnˈ [key] [Chin. Hanyu pinyin = Chinese phonetic alphabet], system of romanization of Chinese written characters, approved in 1958 by the government of the People's Republic of Chi...

Ajmer

(Encyclopedia)Ajmer ăjmērˈ, əj– [key], former state, NW India. Now part of Rajasthan state, it formerly consisted of two detached areas surrounded by Rajasthan and was identical w...

shad

(Encyclopedia)shad, fish of the genus Alosa, family Clupeidae (herring family), found in North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean. The American shad, A. sapidissima, is one of the largest (6 lb/2.7 kg average) ...

Landry, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Landry, Tom (Thomas Wade Landry), 1924–2000, American football coach, b. Mission, Tex., B.S., Univ. of Texas, 1949, M.S. Univ. of Houston, 1952. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (1942–45), and...

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.

(Encyclopedia)Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka because she was black. When, com...

Browse by Subject