Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

East India Company, British

(Encyclopedia)East India Company, British, 1600–1874, company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for trade with Asia. The original object of the group of merchants involved was to break the Dutch monopoly of the spic...

Speed, John

(Encyclopedia)Speed, John, 1552?–1629, English historian and cartographer. He abandoned his trade as a tailor to engage in mapmaking. Many of his maps of parts of England and Wales were published in The Theatre o...

Seely, John Edward Bernard, 1st baron of Mottistone

(Encyclopedia)Seely, John Edward Bernard, 1st baron of Mottistone, 1868–1947, British politician. He served in the South African War and entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1900. Having switched to the Libera...

John, Augustus Edwin

(Encyclopedia)John, Augustus Edwin, 1879–1961, British painter and etcher, b. Wales. John studied at the Slade School, London. A leading portrait painter, he had many important sitters, among them Queen Elizabeth...

Harvard, John

(Encyclopedia)Harvard, John, 1607–38, English minister in America and first major benefactor of Harvard College, b. Southwark, England, M.A. Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1635. He immigrated in 1637 to Charlestown...

McLoughlin, John

(Encyclopedia)McLoughlin, John məglŏkhˈlĭn, –glôfˈlĭn [key], 1784–1857, Canadian-American fur trader in Oregon, b. Rivière du Loup, near Quebec. A physician and then a trader, he was (1824–46) chief a...

British North America Act

(Encyclopedia)British North America Act, law passed by the British Parliament in 1867 that provided for the unification of the Canadian provinces into the dominion of Canada. Until 1982 the act also functioned as t...

Toland, John

(Encyclopedia)Toland, John tōˈlənd [key], 1670–1722, British deist, b. Ireland. Brought up a Roman Catholic, Toland became a Protestant at 16. He studied at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leiden and after 1694 lived ...

Simcoe, John Graves

(Encyclopedia)Simcoe, John Graves sĭmˈkō [key], 1752–1806, British army officer, first governor of Upper Canada (Ontario). He served with the British in the American Revolution. Upon the division of Quebec int...

Milne, John

(Encyclopedia)Milne, John, 1850–1913, British seismologist, b. Liverpool, educated at King's College and the Royal School of Mines. He worked as a mining engineer in Newfoundland and Labrador and served (1874) as...