Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Morton, Sarah Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Morton, Sarah Wentworth, 1759–1846, American author, b. Boston. Under her pseudonym, Philenia, she wrote such works as Ouâbi: Or the Virtues of Nature (1790), a sentimental Native American romance....

Newton, Gilbert Stuart

(Encyclopedia)Newton, Gilbert Stuart, 1794–1835, English genre and portrait painter, b. Halifax, N.S., studied in Boston with his uncle Gilbert Stuart, and later abroad. He was greatly influenced by the 17th-cent...

Winthrop, John, 1714–79, American scientist

(Encyclopedia)Winthrop, John, 1714–79, American scientist, b. Boston, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1732. Because of his study of earthquakes, he is sometimes called the founder of seismology. He made scientific observat...

Westwood

(Encyclopedia)Westwood. 1 Residential town (1990 pop. 12,557), Norfolk co., E Mass., in the greater Boston area; settled 1640, inc. 1897. Clothing is manufactured, and the town has several early 18th-century buildi...

Wachusett Reservoir

(Encyclopedia)Wachusett Reservoir wôcho͞oˈsĭt [key], on the South Branch of the Nashua River, central Mass., NE of Worcester; built 1897–1905. Impounded by Wachusett Dam (completed 1906), it receives some of ...

Bellows, Henry Whitney

(Encyclopedia)Bellows, Henry Whitney, 1814–82, American clergyman, b. Boston. From 1839 until his death he was pastor of the First Congregational Society, Unitarian (later Church of All Souls) in New York City. B...

oboe

(Encyclopedia)oboe ōˈboi, hōˈ– [key], woodwind instrument of conical bore, its mouthpiece having a double reed. The instruments possessing these general characteristics may be referred to as the oboe family, ...

Coffin, Sir Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Sir Isaac, 1759–1839, British naval officer, b. Boston, Mass. From a loyalist family, he fought for the British in the American Revolution and in the French Revolutionary Wars; at the end of...

Giamatti, A. Bartlett

(Encyclopedia)Giamatti, A. Bartlett jēˌəmätˈē [key], 1938–89, American educator and sports executive, b. Boston. President of Yale Univ. from 1978 to 1986, he was president of baseball's National League (19...

Intolerable Acts

(Encyclopedia)Intolerable Acts, name given by American patriots to five laws (including the Quebec Act) adopted by Parliament in 1774, which limited the political and geographical freedom of the colonists. Four of ...