Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Avalon

(Encyclopedia)Avalon ăvˈəlŏn [key], in Celtic mythology, the blissful otherworld of the dead. In medieval romance it was the island to which the mortally wounded King Arthur was taken, and from which it was exp...

Lee, Francis Lightfoot

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Francis Lightfoot, 1734–97, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Westmoreland co., Va.; brother of Arthur, Richard H., and William Lee. Whi...

Miramichi

(Encyclopedia)Miramichi mĭrəmĭshēˈ [key], river, c.135 mi (220 km) long, rising in several forks and tributaries in central N.B. and flowing E past Newcastle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Miramichi Bay. The...

Laurentian Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Laurentian Mountains lôrˈəntīdzˌ, lärˈ–, –tēdzˌ [key], S Que., Canada, N of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, rising to 3,150 ft (960 m) in Mt. Tremblant. The Gatineau, L'Assomption, Li...

Carpenter, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Carpenter, Edward, 1844–1929, English author. Although ordained a minister in 1869, he became a Fabian socialist in 1874 and renounced religion. Among his works on social reform are Towards Democrac...

Transportation, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Transportation, United States Department of, executive department of the U.S. government, established by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. Its chief executive officer, the secretary, is a ...

Amadas, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Amadas or Amidas, Philip both: ămˈədăs [key], 1550–1618, English navigator. With Arthur Barlowe he was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 to explore the North American coast. Their favorable rep...

Grenfell, Bernard Pyne

(Encyclopedia)Grenfell, Bernard Pyne grĕnˈfĕl [key], 1869–1926, English classical scholar and Egyptologist. With Arthur Surridge Hunt he discovered at Oxyrhynchus the Logia of Jesus (see Agrapha of Jesus). He ...

Pomponius Mela

(Encyclopedia)Pomponius Mela mēˈlə [key], fl. c.a.d. 50, Roman geographer, b. Spain. His De situ orbis, a description of the then known world, was published in Latin in 1471 and translated into English by Arthur...

Tappan, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Tappan, Lewis, 1788–1873, American abolitionist, b. Northampton, Mass. He became a partner in his brother Arthur's New York mercantile house in 1828 and in 1841 founded the first agency for rating c...

Browse by Subject