Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

417 results found

Adam's Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Adam's Bridge or Rama's Bridge räˈmə [key], chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long, SW Palk Strait, between India and island nation of Sri Lanka. At high tide it is covered by c.4 ft (1.2 m) of wate...

Adam's-needle

(Encyclopedia)Adam's-needle: see yucca.

Adam's Peak

(Encyclopedia)Adam's Peak, Sinhalese Sri Padastanaya and Samanaliya, mountain, 7,360 ft (2,243 m) high, S central Sri Lanka. It is a sacred mountain, famous as a goal of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslim...

Sedgwick, Adam

(Encyclopedia)Sedgwick, Adam, 1785–1873, English geologist. He was a professor at Cambridge from 1818. His most important work was a study, made with R. I. Murchison, of the rock formation of Devonshire, which th...

Adam, James

(Encyclopedia)Adam, James: see Adam, Robert.

Adam, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Adam, Robert ădˈəm [key], 1728–92, and James Adam, 1730–94, Scottish architects, brothers. They designed important public and private buildings in England and Scotland and numerous interiors, p...

Ekholm, Gordon Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Ekholm, Gordon Frederick ĕkˈhōlm [key], 1909–87, American archaeologist, b. St. Paul, Minn., Ph.D. Harvard, 1941. Working with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City after 1937, ...

Allport, Gordon W.

(Encyclopedia)Allport, Gordon W. ôlˈpôrt [key], 1897–1967, American psychologist, b. Montezuma, Ind. One of the first psychologists to study personality, Allport researched human attitudes, prejudices, and rel...

Craig, Edward Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Craig, Edward Gordon, 1872–1966, English scene designer, producer, and actor. The son of Ellen Terry, Gordon Craig began acting with Henry Irving's Lyceum company (1885–97). Feeling that the reali...

Childe, Vere Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Childe, Vere Gordon, 1892–1957, British archaeologist, b. Australia. An Oxford graduate, he taught at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1927–46) and the Univ. of London (1946–56). He gained renown for his...