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Rule, Britannia

(Encyclopedia)Rule, Britannia, English patriotic song. The music was composed by Thomas Augustine Arne for his masque Alfred, first performed August 1, 1740, in commemoration of the accession of George I. The words...

Meredith, Edwin Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Meredith, Edwin Thomas, 1876–1928, American publisher and U.S. secretary of agriculture (1920–21), b. Avoca, Iowa. After 1896 he owned and edited the Farmers' Tribune, founded (1902) Successful Fa...

Davidson, Jo

(Encyclopedia)Davidson, Jo, 1883–1952, American sculptor, b. New York City. He studied at the Art Students League and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He is known especially for his portrait busts, which display...

Beer, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Beer, Thomas, 1889–1940, American author, b. Council Bluffs, Iowa, grad. Yale, 1911, and studied law at Columbia, 1911–13. He is best remembered for his biographies of Stephen Crane (1923) and Mar...

prehistory

(Encyclopedia)prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some reco...

Huerta, Victoriano

(Encyclopedia)Huerta, Victoriano vēktōryäˈnō [key], 1854–1916, Mexican general and president (1913–14). He served under Porfirio Díaz. After the revolution of Francisco I. Madero (1911) he aided the new p...

Hale, George Ellery

(Encyclopedia)Hale, George Ellery, 1868–1938, American astronomer, b. Chicago, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. He founded and directed three great observatories (Yerkes, Mt. Wilson, and Palomar...

McCarthy, Mary Therese

(Encyclopedia)McCarthy, Mary Therese, 1912–89, American writer, b. Seattle, grad. Vassar, 1933. As drama critic for the Partisan Review (1937–45), she gained a reputation for wit, intellect, and acerbity. Her n...

Aquila, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Aquila [Lat.,=the eagle], equatorial constellation located N of Sagittarius and Capricornus, lying partly in the Milky Way. It is sometimes depicted as an eagle. It contains the bright star Altair (Al...

Marlboro Music Festival

(Encyclopedia)Marlboro Music Festival, chamber music festival held on the campus of Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vt., annually in July and August. Founded in 1951 by Adolf Busch, Rudolf Serkin, and several others an...