(Encyclopedia) McGuinness, Martin (James Martin Pacelli McGuinness), 1950–2017, Northern Irish political leader, b. Derry. He joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as a young man and was active in…
(Encyclopedia) Maine, Sir Henry James Sumner, 1822–88, English jurist and historian, educated at Cambridge. A pioneer in the historical and comparative study of institutions, he viewed the history of…
(Encyclopedia) Nag HammadiNag Hammadinäg häˈmädi [key], a town in Egypt near the ancient town of Chenoboskion, where, in 1945, a large cache of gnostic texts in the Coptic language was discovered.…
(Encyclopedia) Mother Goose, name associated with nursery rhymes. Most English nursery rhymes have been ascribed to Mother Goose. The origin of the name is still a matter of dispute. Some trace it to…
(Encyclopedia) Murray, Elizabeth, 1940–2007, American abstract artist, b. Chicago. She moved in 1967 to New York, where she became part of the post-minimalism generation of artists in the 1970s. In…
(Encyclopedia) Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand vonHelmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand vonhĕrˈmän l&oomacr;tˈvĭkh fĕrˈdēnänt fən hĕlmˈhôlts [key], 1821–94, German scientist. Although known…
(Encyclopedia) herbarium, collection of dried and mounted plant specimens used in systematic botany. To preserve their form and color, plants collected in the field are spread flat in sheets of…
(Encyclopedia) Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 1661–1736, English architect involved in the development of most of the great buildings of the English baroque. From the age of 21 he assisted Sir Christopher Wren…
(Encyclopedia) Hopper, Grace, 1906–92, American computer scientist, b. New York City as Grace Brewster Murray. She was educated at Vassar College and Yale (Ph.D., 1934). After teaching at Vassar (…
(Encyclopedia) hermeneutics, the theory and practice of interpretation. During the Reformation hermeneutics came into being as a special discipline concerned with biblical criticism. The Protestant…