Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

408 results found

Ammiel

(Encyclopedia)Ammiel ămˈēĕl [key], in the Bible. 1 Spy. 2 Father of Machir (2.) 3 Porter of the Temple. 4 See Eliam (1.) ...

Shaw, Artie

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Artie, 1910–2004, American clarinetist and bandleader, b. New York City as Arthur Jacob Arshawsky. He began playing professionally as a teenager, becoming a studio musician in New York after 1...

Drago, Luis María

(Encyclopedia)Drago, Luis María lo͞oēsˈ märēˈä dräˈgō [key], 1859–1921, Argentine statesman, jurist, and writer on international law. As minister of foreign affairs under Julio A. Roca, he dispatched (...

Seymour, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Seymour, Jane, 1509?–1537, third queen consort of Henry VIII of England. She served as a lady in waiting to both of Henry's first two queens, Katharine of Aragón and Anne Boleyn. Henry became inter...

Fitzgerald, Ella

(Encyclopedia)Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917–96, American jazz singer, b. Newport News, Va. Probably the most celebrated jazz vocalist of her generation, Fitzgerald was reared in Yonkers, N.Y., moving after her mother's ...

Napoleon, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Napoleon, Louis, 1800–1881, African American abolitionist. He lived in a community of free blacks in Staten Island, N.Y., working as a porter and furniture polisher while secretly operating as an �...

André, Brother

(Encyclopedia)André, Brother äNdrāˈ, änˈ– [key], 1845–1937, Canadian Roman Catholic mystic, b. St. Grégoire d'Iberville, Que. His secular name was Alfred Bissette, Bassette, or Bessette. For about 40 yea...

Shaw, Richard Norman

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Richard Norman, 1831–1912, English architect. Breaking away from contemporary Victorian house designs and returning to the Queen Anne and Georgian styles and to traditional English craftsmansh...

Melba, Dame Nellie

(Encyclopedia)Melba, Dame Nellie, 1861–1931, Australian soprano, whose name originally was Helen Porter Mitchell. After study with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris, she made her operatic debut in Brussels in 1887. Famo...

Hart, Moss

(Encyclopedia)Hart, Moss, 1904–61, American dramatist, b. New York City, studied at Columbia. His first important play, Once in a Lifetime (1930), marked the beginning of a long collaboration with George S. Kaufm...

Browse by Subject