Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kearney, Denis

(Encyclopedia)Kearney, Denis kärˈnē [key], 1847–1907, American political agitator, b. Co. Cork, Ireland. He was a sailor and then a San Francisco drayman. When California suffered a depression in 1877, Kearney...

Riverside

(Encyclopedia)Riverside. 1 City (1990 pop. 226,505), seat of Riverside co., S Calif.; inc. 1883. One of the fastest growing U.S. cities in the late 20th cent., it is famous for its orange industry. The navel orange...

Yurok

(Encyclopedia)Yurok yo͝orˈŏk [key], Native North Americans who in the mid-19th cent. occupied parts of NW California, particularly the area around the Klamath River. They were of the California cultural area but...

Broderick, David Colbreth

(Encyclopedia)Broderick, David Colbreth brōˈdərĭk [key], 1820–59, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Brought up in New York City, he was active in Tammany Hall before moving to California in 1849. He be...

Anaheim

(Encyclopedia)Anaheim ănˈəhīm [key], city (2020 pop. 346,824), Orange co., S Calif., SE of Los Angeles; inc. 1870. Anaheim was founded by Germans in 1857 as an experiment in communa...

Wurster, William Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Wurster, William Wilson, 1895–1973, American architect, b. Stockton, Calif. Wurster was a major designer of town and country dwellings in the roomy and comfortable West Coast aesthetic termed “Bay...

Santa Cruz, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Santa Cruz sănˈtə kro͞oz [key], city (1990 pop. 49,040), seat of Santa Cruz co., W Calif., on the north shore of Monterey Bay; inc. 1866. Surrounded by hills and redwoods, the city is a seaside ci...

Heeger, Alan Jay

(Encyclopedia)Heeger, Alan Jay, 1936–, American physicist and chemist, b. Sioux City, Iowa, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1961. Heeger has held faculty positions at the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1962–82) an...

Johnson, Sargent

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Sargent, 1888–1967, American sculptor, b. Boston. He moved to N California at age 18 and studied stulpture there. A member of California's New Negro Movement, Johnson was influenced by West...

Marler, Peter Robert

(Encyclopedia)Marler, Peter Robert, 1928–2014, British ethologist, b. Slough, England, Ph.D University College London, 1952, and Cambridge, 1954. At Cambridge he was introduced to the sonic spectrograph, an instr...

Browse by Subject