Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hargreaves, James

(Encyclopedia)Hargreaves, James härˈgrēvz [key], 1720?–1778, English engineer. In 1762 he made an unsuccessful attempt to develop a machine for carding, a process preparatory to spinning, and in 1764 he invent...

Harrington, James

(Encyclopedia)Harrington, James, 1611–77, English political writer. His Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) pictured a utopian society in which political authority rested entirely with the landed gentry. Harrington adv...

Harrod, James

(Encyclopedia)Harrod, James, 1742–93, American frontiersman, b. Bedford co., Pa. He fought in the French and Indian Wars and in 1773 made a journey down the Ohio River to Kentucky. In 1774 he returned to Kentucky...

Hoban, James

(Encyclopedia)Hoban, James hōˈbən [key], c.1762–1831, American architect, b. Ireland. By 1789, Hoban had immigrated to the United States. He designed the South Carolina statehouse, which was burned in 1865. In...

Hogg, James

(Encyclopedia)Hogg, James, 1770–1835, Scottish poet, called the Ettrick Shepherd. Sir Walter Scott established Hogg's literary reputation by including some of his poems in Border Minstrelsy. Hogg's verse, notable...

Gregory, James

(Encyclopedia)Gregory, James, 1638–75, Scottish mathematician. He invented a reflecting telescope (1661), which he described in his Optica promota (1663). In 1668 he became professor of mathematics at the Univ. o...

Groppi, James

(Encyclopedia)Groppi, James, 1931–85, American Roman Catholic cleric and political activist, b. Milwaukee. Groppi, who grew up in the Milwaukee slums, attended St. Francis' Seminary and was ordained in 1960. In 1...

Habersham, James

(Encyclopedia)Habersham, James hăˈbərshəm [key], 1713–75, colonial statesman, acting governor of Georgia (1771–73), b. Beverley, Yorkshire, England. He came to Georgia (1738) and was associated with George ...

Hall, James

(Encyclopedia)Hall, James, 1811–98, American geologist and paleontologist, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 1832. An authority on stratigraphy and invertebrate ...

Buchanan, James

(Encyclopedia)Buchanan, James, 1791–1868, 15th President of the United States (1857–61), b. near Mercersburg, Pa., grad. Dickinson College, 1809. Buchanan was nominated as a Democratic candidate for the pres...

Browse by Subject