Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Medill, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Medill, Joseph mədĭlˈ [key], 1823–99, American journalist, b. near St. John, N.B., Canada. His family moved to a farm near Massillon, Ohio, in 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, but in 184...

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Gaudens, Augustus sānt-gôdˈənz [key], 1848–1907, American sculptor, b. Dublin, Ireland. His family immigrated to New York when he was an infant. An apprentice in cameo cutting at 13, he ga...

Struve

(Encyclopedia)Struve shtro͞oˈvə [key], family of astronomers. Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, 1793–1864, was born in Germany but later lived in Russia. While director (1817–39) of Dorpat Observatory he w...

Homewood

(Encyclopedia)Homewood. 1 City (2020 pop. 26,414), Jefferson co., N central Ala., a residential suburb of Birmingham; inc. 1921. 2 Village (2020 ...

saxophone

(Encyclopedia)saxophone, musical instrument invented in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Although it uses the single reed of the clarinet family, it has a conical tube and is made of metal. By 1846 there was a double fami...

Dallapiccola, Luigi

(Encyclopedia)Dallapiccola, Luigi lo͞oēˈjē dälˌläpēkˈkōlä [key], 1904–75, Italian composer, b. Pazan, Istria (now in Croatia). Dallapiccola was in a detention camp during World War I; because his wife ...

Brod, Max

(Encyclopedia)Brod, Max mäx brōd [key], 1884–1968, Israeli writer and composer, b. Prague. Brod is best known for his historical novels, written in German, notably The Redemption of Tycho Brahe (1916, tr. 1928)...

Ashcroft, John

(Encyclopedia)Ashcroft, John, 1942–, American political figure, b. Chicago, grad. Yale Univ. (B.A., 1964), Univ. of Chicago School of Law (J.D., 1967). A conservative Republican, Ashcroft was Missouri state audit...

Friedman, Jerome Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Friedman, Jerome Isaac frēdˈmən [key], 1930–, American physicist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1956. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Friedman won the 1990 Nobel P...

Hansberry, Lorraine

(Encyclopedia)Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930–65, American playwright, b. Chicago, studied Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, the New School, New York City. She grew up in a middle-class family on Chicago's South Side. In 19...

Browse by Subject