Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Tammany

(Encyclopedia)Tammany tămˈənē [key] or Tammany Hall, popular name for the Democratic political machine in Manhattan. Tammany suffered a telling defeat in the election of 1932 and did not regain its former s...

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

(Encyclopedia)Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791–1872, American inventor and artist, b. Charlestown, Mass., grad. Yale, 1810. He studied painting in England under Washington Allston and achieved some success. He r...

Maclaine, Shirley

(Encyclopedia) Maclaine, Shirley, 1934- , American actress and author, b. Richmond, Va., as Shirley MacLean Beaty. Maclaine’s father held various jobs in education...

Pure Land Buddhism

(Encyclopedia)Pure Land Buddhism or Amidism, devotional sect of Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan, centering on worship of the Buddha Amitabha. According to the Pure Land Sutras, composed in India in the 2d cent...

Bogdanovich, Peter

(Encyclopedia) Bogdanovich, Peter, 1939 - 2021, American film director, actor, and critic, b. Kingston, N.Y. Bogdanovich was the son of Serbian immigrants. He studie...

Huntington, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Huntington, Samuel, 1731–96, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Windham, Conn. He was a delegate (1775–84) to and president (1779–81) of t...

Bartlett, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Bartlett, William Henry, 1800–1854, English painter and illustrator. After four visits to the United States, Bartlett illustrated a book, American Scenery (1840), with panoramic vistas of the Americ...

poet laureate

(Encyclopedia)poet laureate lôˈrēĭt [key], title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having...

Rulers of England and Great Britain (table)

(Encyclopedia)Rulers of England and Great Britain(including dates of reign) Saxons and Danes House of Normandy House of Blois House of Plantagenet House of Lancaster House of York House of Tudor Ho...

Westcott, Brooke Foss

(Encyclopedia)Westcott, Brooke Foss, 1825–1901, English prelate and scholar. From 1870 to 1890 he was regius professor of divinity at Cambridge. With F. J. A. Hort, he published The New Testament in the Original ...