Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Prescott, William

(Encyclopedia)Prescott, William, 1726–95, American Revolutionary officer, b. Groton, Mass. He saw service in the French and Indian Wars. In the American Revolution, he fortified (1775) Breed's Hill for the coloni...

Leicester sheep

(Encyclopedia)Leicester sheep lĕsˈtər [key], breed of sheep originated from native stock as mutton producers in Leicestershire, England, by the English livestock breeder Robert Bakewell (c.1755). English Leicest...

Lubbock

(Encyclopedia)Lubbock, city (1990 pop. 186,206), seat of Lubbock co., NW Tex.; inc. 1909. In the Llano Estacado region on a branch of the Brazos River, it was settled in 1879 by Quakers. It is the trade center for ...

Cornish hen

(Encyclopedia)Cornish hen or Cornish chicken, breed of poultry that originated in Cornwall, England, but gained prominence only after it was established in the United States. Its body shape is quite different from ...

Lumet, Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Lumet, Sidney lo͞o-mĕtˈ [key], 1924–2011, one of the great American film directors of the 20th cent., b. Philadelphia. A child actor in New York's Yiddish radio and theater and (1935–41) on Bro...

Sonora

(Encyclopedia)Sonora sōnōˈrä [key], state (1990 pop. 1,823,606), 70,484 sq mi (182,554 sq km), NW Mexico, on the Gulf of California, S of Arizona. Hermosillo is the capital. Sonora is mostly mountainous, with v...

draft horse

(Encyclopedia)draft horse or work horse, any breed of horse that is suited to or used for drawing heavy loads. Draft horses originated in central Europe, where their domestication preceded the Roman invasion. Popul...

Stuck, Hudson

(Encyclopedia)Stuck, Hudson, 1863–1920, American missionary and explorer, b. London, England. He emigrated to the United States in 1885, graduated from the Univ. of the South (1892), and was dean (1894–1904) of...

Leyner, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Leyner, Mark, 1956–, American writer, b. Jersey City, N.J. His hyperliterate postmodernist short stories, collected in I Smell Esther Williams (1983), My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (1990), and To...

Mitchell, Joni

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Joni, 1943–, Canadian-American songwriter, singer, guitarist, poet, and painter, b. MacLeod (now Fort Macleod), Alta., as Roberta Joan Ander...