Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ritchie, Alexander Hay

(Encyclopedia)Ritchie, Alexander Hay, 1822–95, American engraver and painter, b. Scotland. He came to the United States in 1841 and a few years later established a successful workshop in New York City. His engrav...

Dallas, Alexander James

(Encyclopedia)Dallas, Alexander James dălˈəs [key], 1759–1817, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1814–16), b. Jamaica, West Indies. He went (1783) to Philadelphia, practiced law, and was secretary of state (17...

Browne, Thomas Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Browne, Thomas Alexander, pseud. Rolf Boldrewood rōf bôlˈdərwo͝odˌ, rôlf [key], 1826–1915, Australian author. A squatter, a magistrate, and a commissioner in the gold fields, he wrote many bo...

Binns, John Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Binns, John Alexander, c.1761–1813, American agriculturist, b. Loudoun co., Va. He was one of the first to experiment with gypsum as a fertilizer and to convince others of its efficacy. Partly throu...

Neill, Alexander Sutherland

(Encyclopedia)Neill, Alexander Sutherland, 1883–1973, English educator. After teaching at state schools in Scotland, Neill became dissatisfied with traditional education. In 1924, he set up the progressive coeduc...

Murray, Alexander Stuart

(Encyclopedia)Murray, Alexander Stuart, 1841–1904, Scottish archaeologist. He was assistant keeper (1867–86) and keeper (from 1886) of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum. From 1894 to 1896 he was...

Alexander, king of Serbia

(Encyclopedia)Alexander (Alexander Obrenović) ōbrĕˈnəvĭch [key], 1876–1903, king of Serbia (1889–1903), son of King Milan. He succeeded on his father's abdication. Proclaiming himself of age in 1893, he t...

Alexander, Andrew Lamar, Jr.

(Encyclopedia) Alexander, Andrew Lamar, Jr., American politician, b. Maryville, Tn., Vanderbilt Univ. (B.A., 1962); New York Univ. (J.D., 1965). The son of educators, Alexander studied at Vanderbilt Uni...

Müller, Karl Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Müller, Karl Alexander, 1927–, Swiss physicist, Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1958. In 1983, Müller and co-researcher Johannes Georg Bednorz discovered superconductivity in a cerami...

Fleming, Sir Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Fleming, Sir Alexander, 1881–1955, Scottish bacteriologist, discoverer of penicillin (1928) and lysozyme (1922), an antibacterial substance found in saliva and other body secretions. Educated at St....