Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dudley, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Dudley, Joseph, 1647–1720, colonial governor of Massachusetts, b. Roxbury, Mass.; son of Thomas Dudley. In 1682 he was one of the agents sent to England to protest against the threatened loss of the...

reed organ

(Encyclopedia)reed organ, an organ in which air is forced over free reeds by means of bellows, usually worked by pedals. It is played by the use of one or more keyboards. Variations in tone are produced by stops th...

Bethel, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Bethel bĕthˈəl [key] [Heb.,=house of God]. 1 Ancient city of central Palestine, the modern Baytin, the West Bank, N of Jerusalem. According to the Bible, where it is frequently mentioned, it was or...

gazetteer

(Encyclopedia)gazetteer găzˌĭtērˈ [key], dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. T...

Cohen, Samuel Theodore

(Encyclopedia)Cohen, Samuel Theodore, 1921–2010, American physicist known as the “father of the neutron bomb,” b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Proje...

Emanuel, Rahm Israel

(Encyclopedia)Emanuel, Rahm Israel, 1959–, American politician, b. Chicago, grad. Sarah Lawrence College (B.A., 1981), Northwestern Univ. (M.A., 1985). A seasoned Democratic power broker and skilled dealmaker kno...

Schuman, William

(Encyclopedia)Schuman, William sho͞oˈmən [key], 1910–92, American composer, b. New York City. Schuman taught at Sarah Lawrence College (1935–45), and while president of Juilliard (1945–62) he helped initia...

Morris, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Roger, 1727–94, Loyalist in the American Revolution, b. Yorkshire, England. He came (1755) to America as aide-de-camp to Gen. Edward Braddock and fought under James Wolfe at Quebec. After hi...

Kirby, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kirby, Jack, 1917–94, American comic-book artist famous for the strongly drawn, brilliantly colored, and surprisingly human superheroes and villains he created or co-created, b. New York City as Jac...

Haarlem

(Encyclopedia)Haarlem härˈləm [key], city, capital of North Holland prov., W Netherlands, on the Spaarne ...