Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Carter Family

(Encyclopedia)Carter Family, group of singers that specialized in traditional music of the Southern Appalachian Mountains; it consisted of A(lvin) P(leasant) Carter, 1891–1960, b. Maces Spring, Va.; his wife, Sar...

Cash, Johnny

(Encyclopedia)Cash, Johnny, 1932–2003, American singer and songwriter, b. Kingsland, Ark. Born to a farm family, he went to Memphis in 1955 and recorded such hits as “I Walk the Line” (1956) and “Ring of Fi...

Markham, Gervase

(Encyclopedia)Markham, Gervase, 1568–1637, English writer on horses and English country life. His chief work is Cavelarice; or the English Horseman (1607). Included among his other works are Country Contentments ...

Tchernaiev, Mikhail Grigoryevich

(Encyclopedia)Tchernaiev or Chernyaiev, Mikhail Grigoryevich mēkhəyēlˈ grĭgôrˈyəvĭch chĭrnyīˈəf [key], 1828–98, Russian general and Pan-Slavist. Sent on a minor mission to central Asia in 1864, he ex...

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

(Encyclopedia)Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), association of Eurasian nations founded 2001 in Shanghai by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Under the charter signed in 2002...

Huntington, Ellsworth

(Encyclopedia)Huntington, Ellsworth, 1876–1947, American geographer, b. Galesburg, Ill., grad. Beloit College, 1897, M.A. Harvard, 1902, Ph.D. Yale, 1909. He taught at Euphrates College, Turkey (1897–1901); acc...

waxwing

(Encyclopedia)waxwing, any of three species of perching songbirds of the Northern Hemisphere. Waxwings have crests (raised only in alarm) and sleek brownish-gray plumage with flecks of red pigment resembling sealin...

Pergamum

(Encyclopedia)Pergamum pûrˈgəməm [key], ancient city of NW Asia Minor, in Mysia (modern Turkey), in the fertile valley of the Caicus. It became important c.300 b.c., after the breakup of the Macedonian empire, ...

Soule

(Encyclopedia)Soule so͞ol [key], small region, in Pyrénées-Atlantiques dept., SW France, bordering on Spain. Mauléon-Licharre is the traditional capital. An ancient province of the Basque Country, it was annexe...

Whitman, Marcus

(Encyclopedia)Whitman, Marcus, 1802–47, American pioneer and missionary in the Oregon country, b. Federal Hollow (later Rushville), N.Y. In 1836 he left a country medical practice to go West as a missionary for t...