Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cogswell, Joseph Green

(Encyclopedia)Cogswell, Joseph Green kŏgzˈwĕl, –wəl [key], 1786–1871, American librarian and bibliographer, b. Ipswich, Mass. After studying abroad, Cogswell taught mineralogy and geology at Harvard and bec...

Fessenden, Thomas Green

(Encyclopedia)Fessenden, Thomas Green fĕsˈəndən [key], 1771–1837, American journalist and satirical poet, b. Walpole, N.H. Throughout his life he practiced law and edited various newspapers. Under the pseudon...

Grand Traverse Bay

(Encyclopedia)Grand Traverse Bay, arm of Lake Michigan, 32 mi (52 km) long and 10 mi (16 km) wide, W central Mich. The bay is known for its fishing and boating. The surrounding area is an important cherry-growing a...

Green, Anna Katherine

(Encyclopedia)Green, Anna Katherine, 1846–1935, American detective-story writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Ripley Female College, Poultney, Vt., 1867. Of her many thrillers, characterized by logical construction a...

Ottawa, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Ottawa ōdäˈwə [key], Native Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Traditionally of the Eastern Wood...

Lady of the Lake

(Encyclopedia)Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...

blue-green algae

(Encyclopedia)blue-green algae, popular name for those microorganisms that are now more properly called cyanobacteria. ...

Agassiz, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Agassiz, Lake ăgˈəsē [key], glacial lake of the Pleistocene epoch, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, 250 mi (400 km) wide, formed by the melting of the continental ice sheet beginning some 14,000 years ag...

Bowling Green State University

(Encyclopedia)Bowling Green State University, at Bowling Green, Ohio; coeducational; chartered 1910 as a normal school, opened 1914. It became a college in 1929, a university in 1935. The school has research instit...

Simcoe, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Simcoe, Lake, 539 sq mi (1,396 sq km), S Ont., Canada, between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario. Cook Bay, Kempenfelt Bay, and Lake Couchiching are arms of the lake. Lake Simcoe drains N through the Seve...