Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Henty, George Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Henty, George Alfred, 1832–1902, English author. Initially a war correspondent, he later wrote boys' adventure tales that were very popular. Henty's books all focused on an ideal of manly virtue. Th...

Crosby

(Encyclopedia)Crosby, town, Sefton metropolitan district, NW England, on Liverpool Bay. Formed in 1937 from the urban districts of Great Crosby and Waterloo-with-Seaf...

Williams, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Sir George, 1821–1905, English merchant. A vigorous advocate of temperance and an opponent of gambling and tobacco, Williams founded the Young Men's Christian Association in 1844. In 1894 ...

Boston Latin School

(Encyclopedia)Boston Latin School, at Boston; opened 1635 as a school for boys; one of the oldest free public schools in the United States. Many famous men attended the school, including five signers of the Declara...

Appalachian Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Appalachian Mountains ăpəlāˈchən, –chēən, –lăchˈ– [key], mountain system of E North America, extending in a broad belt c.1,600 mi (2,570 km) SW from the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec prov....

Girard College

(Encyclopedia)Girard College, in Philadelphia, an elementary and secondary boarding school for children with financial need from single-parent or parentless families. It opened 1848 with a bequest, now grown to a h...

Glenalmond

(Encyclopedia)Glenalmond glĕnäˈmənd [key], valley of the Almond River, Perth and Kinross, central Scotland, N of Crieff. A huge flat stone marks the traditional grave of Ossian, the legendary Gaelic poet. A Rom...

Breck, James Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Breck, James Lloyd, 1818–76, American Episcopal clergyman and missionary, b. Philadelphia. In 1841 he established a seminary at Nashotah, Wis., with which he was connected until 1850, when he turned...

tody

(Encyclopedia)tody tōˈdē [key], common name for small (3–4 in./9–10 cm) West Indian birds of the family Todidae, comprising the single genus Todus. Bright green above with red throats, they are forest birds ...

Charterhouse

(Encyclopedia)Charterhouse [Fr.,=Chartreuse], in London, England, once a Carthusian monastery (founded 1371), later a hospital for old men and then a school for boys, endowed in 1611. The school, which became a lar...

Browse by Subject