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Dewing, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Dewing, Francis do͞oˈĭng, dyo͞oˈ– [key], fl. 1716–22, early American engraver, b. England. He came to Boston in 1716 as an engraver and printer, probably one of the first in America. In 1722 ...

panama-hat palm

(Encyclopedia)panama-hat palm, perennial herb (Carludovica palmata) growing wild from Central America south to Bolivia. Despite its frondlike leaves it is not a true palm. The leaves are used to weave Panama hats, ...

Gardiner, Lion

(Encyclopedia)Gardiner, Lion, 1599–1663, English colonist in America. Under contract with patentees of Connecticut, Gardiner designed and erected (1635–36) the blockhouse at Saybrook, which he defended in the P...

Tapachula

(Encyclopedia)Tapachula täpächo͞oˈlä [key], city (1990 pop. 138,858) Chiapas state, SE Mexico, at the foot of the Chiapas highlands and near the Guatemala border. It is the commercial center of a coffee-growin...

Brown, Samuel Robbins

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Samuel Robbins, 1810–80, American missionary and educator, b. East Windsor, Conn. As a missionary (1839–47) to China, he took charge of a school founded by the Morrison Educational Associat...

Bimeler, Joseph Michael

(Encyclopedia)Bimeler, Joseph Michael bīˈmələr [key], 1778–1853, German religious leader, originally called Bäumler. A teacher of the separatists in Württemberg, in 1817 he led a group of them to America. I...

Lodge, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Lodge, Thomas, 1558?–1625, English writer, grad. Oxford, 1577. After abandoning the study of law for literature, he published (c.1580) his defense of poetry and other arts, usually called Honest Exc...

Loewy, Raymond Fernand

(Encyclopedia)Loewy, Raymond Fernand, 1893–1986, American designer, b. Paris, France. He emigrated in 1919, settling in New York City; he became a U.S. citizen in 1938. Known as the father of industrial design, L...

Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor

(Encyclopedia)Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor kəno͞otˈ yōˈhän vĭkˈtôr räsˈmo͝osən [key], 1879–1933, Danish arctic explorer and ethnologist. Born in Greenland of Eskimo ancestry on his mother's side, he ...

Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of, 1771–1820, Scottish philanthropist, founder of the Red River Settlement. Emigration to America seemed to him the best solution for the poverty of his countrymen...