Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

364 results found

Lewis, rivers, United States and Canada

(Encyclopedia)Lewis. 1 Early name of the Snake River. 2 River, c.95 mi (155 km) long, rising in the Cascade Range, SW Wash., and flowing SW to the Columbia River NW of Vancouver. Three privately owned dams furnish ...

Saginaw, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Saginaw săgˈĭnô [key], city (1990 pop. 69,512), seat of Saginaw co., S Mich., on the Saginaw River, 15 mi (24 km) from its mouth on Saginaw Bay (an inlet of Lake Huron); settled 1816, inc. 1857. S...

French, Daniel Chester

(Encyclopedia)French, Daniel Chester, 1850–1931, American sculptor, b. Exeter, N.H., studied in Florence and in Boston with William Rimmer. After executing his first large work, The Minute Man (1875), he received...

Black, Jeremiah Sullivan

(Encyclopedia)Black, Jeremiah Sullivan, 1810–83, American cabinet officer, b. Somerset co., Pa. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1830, Black became a successful lawyer. As U.S. Attorney General (1857–60) und...

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

(Encyclopedia)Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793–1864, American ethnologist, b. near Albany, N.Y. He gave enormous impetus to the study of Native American culture and may be regarded as the foremost pioneer in Native ...

Barnburners

(Encyclopedia)Barnburners, radical element of the Democratic party in New York state from 1842 to 1848, opposed to the conservative Hunkers. The name derives from the fabled Dutchman who burned his barn to rid it o...

Morris, Lewis, 1726–98, American political leader

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Lewis, 1726–98, American political leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Morrisania, N.Y. (now part of the Bronx); elder half-brother of Gouverneur Morris. A wealthy landowne...

popular sovereignty

(Encyclopedia)popular sovereignty, in U.S. history, doctrine under which the status of slavery in the territories was to be determined by the settlers themselves. Although the doctrine won wide support as a means o...

Browse by Subject