Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

473 results found

Woodson, Carter Godwin

(Encyclopedia)Woodson, Carter Godwin, 1875–1950, African-American educator, b. New Canton, Va., Ph.D. Harvard (1912). He taught at Howard Univ. and helped organize (1915) the Association for the Study of Negro Li...

Nevado del Ruiz

(Encyclopedia)Nevado del Ruiz, volcano, 17,457 ft (5,321 m) high, in the Cordillera Central of the N Andes, E Colombia, on the Caldas-Tolima dept. border. A broad, glacier-covered stratovolcano, it can produce expl...

F

(Encyclopedia)F, sixth letter of the alphabet. The Greek letter corresponding to it, digamma, which probably represented a sound like w, disappeared before the classical period. In Western alphabets f has usually r...

restaurant

(Encyclopedia)restaurant, a commerical establishment where meals can be bought and eaten. In the 16th cent. English inns and taverns began to serve one meal a day at a fixed time and price, at a common table, and u...

Letchworth

(Encyclopedia)Letchworth, town (1991 pop. 31,146), Hertfordshire, E central England. It was the first garden city, founded in 1903 by Sir Ebenezer Howard. Industries focus on printing and the manufacture of printin...

Fisk University

(Encyclopedia)Fisk University, at Nashville, Tenn.; coeducational; founded 1865, opened 1866, and chartered 1867. It became a university in 1967. Fisk, long an outstanding African-American school, is open to all qu...

Brownwood

(Encyclopedia)Brownwood, city (2020 pop. 18,862), seat of Brown co., central Tex.; inc. 1876. Its many industries include oil and gas, printing, and the manufacture o...

symphony

(Encyclopedia)symphony [Gr.,=sounding together], a sonata for orchestra. The Italian operatic overture, called sinfonia, was standardized by Alessandro Scarlatti at the end of the 17th cent. into three sections, th...

Big Spring

(Encyclopedia)Big Spring, city (2020 pop. 26,144), seat of Howard co., W central Tex.; inc. 1907. The spring for which it was named once fed a branch of the Colorado ...

Sherman, James Schoolcraft

(Encyclopedia)Sherman, James Schoolcraft, 1855–1912, Vice President of the United States (1909–12), b. near Utica, N.Y. A lawyer, he was (1884–85) mayor of Utica. Sherman served (1887–91, 1893–1909) as a ...