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Wilson, James Grant

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, James Grant, 1832–1914, American biographer and man of letters, b. Scotland. He was brought to the United States in 1833. After journalistic work in Chicago and service in the Union army in ...

Carson, Rachel Louise

(Encyclopedia)Carson, Rachel Louise, 1907–64, American writer and marine biologist, b. Springdale, Pa., M.A. Johns Hopkins, 1932. Her well-known books on sea life—Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea around Us (1...

Washington, Booker Taliaferro

(Encyclopedia)Washington, Booker Taliaferro, 1856–1915, American educator, b. Franklin co., Va. Washington was born into slavery; his mother was a mulatto slave on a plantation, his father a white man whom he nev...

Black, Hugo LaFayette

(Encyclopedia)Black, Hugo LaFayette, 1886–1971, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937–71), b. Harlan, Clay co., Ala. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Alabama in 1906. He practiced law an...

Plessy v. Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...

tomahawk

(Encyclopedia)tomahawk [from an Algonquian dialect of Virginia], hatchet generally used by Native North Americans as a hand weapon and as a missile. The earliest tomahawks were made of stone, with one edge or two e...

Kensington Runestone

(Encyclopedia)Kensington Runestone, much-disputed stone found (1898) on a farm near Kensington, Minn., SW of Alexandria. Inscribed on the stone in runes is an account of a party of Norse explorers, 14 days' journey...

lithography

(Encyclopedia)lithography lĭthŏgˈrəfē [key], type of planographic or surface printing. It is distinguished from letterpress (relief) printing and from intaglio printing (in which the design is cut or etched in...

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