Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Peale, Charles Willson

(Encyclopedia)Peale, Charles Willson pēl [key], 1741–1827, American portrait painter, naturalist, and inventor, b. Queen Annes County, Md. Charles Willson Peale's brother James Peale, 1749–1831, b. Cheste...

Pedersen, Charles John

(Encyclopedia)Pedersen, Charles John, 1904–89, American chemist, b. Busan, Korea, M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1927. After finishing his studies, Pedersen began work as a research chemist for the D...

Peirce, Charles Sanders

(Encyclopedia)Peirce, Charles Sanders pûrs [key], 1839–1914, American philosopher and polymath, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1859; son of Benjamin Peirce. Except for occasional lectures he renounced the r...

Perrine, Charles Dillon

(Encyclopedia)Perrine, Charles Dillon pərīnˈ [key], 1867–1951, American astronomer, b. Steubenville, Ohio. He was on the staff of Lick Observatory (1893–1909) and was (1909–36) director of the Argentine Na...

diary

(Encyclopedia)diary [Lat.,=day], a daily record of events and observations. As distinguished from memoir (an account of events placed in perspective by the author long after they have occurred), the diary derives i...

Gosse, Sir Edmund William

(Encyclopedia)Gosse, Sir Edmund William gŏs [key], 1849–1928, English biographer and critic. He was lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge (1884–90) and librarian of the House of Lords (1...

Genet, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Genet, Jean zhənāˈ [key], 1910–86, French dramatist. Deserted by his parents as an infant, Genet spent much of his early life in reformatories and prisons. Between 1940 and 1948 he wrote several...

Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth dĭlk [key], 1843–1911, British statesman. A radical leader in the Liberal party, he helped pass the parliamentary Reform Acts of 1884–85 as well as laws giving the mu...

Browse by Subject