Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

bestiary

(Encyclopedia)bestiary bĕsˈchēĕrˌē [key], a type of medieval book that was widely popular, particularly from the 12th to 14th cent. The bestiary presumed to describe the animals of the world and to show what ...

Ross, Sir James Clark

(Encyclopedia)Ross, Sir James Clark, 1800–1862, British polar explorer and rear admiral. In 1818 he accompanied his uncle, Sir John Ross, in search of the Northwest Passage and commanded the Erebus. He later stud...

Council Bluffs

(Encyclopedia)Council Bluffs, city (2020 pop. 62,799), seat of Pottawattamie co., SW Iowa, on and below bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, opposite Omaha, Nebr.; ...

Holm, Jeanne Marjorie

(Encyclopedia)Holm, Jeanne Marjorie, 1921–2010, U.S. military officer, the first female general in the U.S. air force, b. Portland, Oreg. Enlisting in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, she soon joined (19...

Snake, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Snake, river, 1,038 mi (1,670 km) long, NW United States, the chief tributary of the Columbia; once called the Lewis River. The Snake rises in NW Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park, flows through J...

De Voto, Bernard Augustine

(Encyclopedia)De Voto, Bernard Augustine də vōˈtō [key], 1897–1955, American writer and editor, b. Ogden, Utah, grad. Harvard, 1920. He taught at Northwestern Univ. (1922–27) and then at Harvard (1929–36)...

Great Falls

(Encyclopedia)Great Falls, city (2020 pop. 60,442), seat of Cascade co., N central Mont., second largest city in the state, at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun ...

Burns, Ken

(Encyclopedia)Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explor...

Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein

(Encyclopedia)Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein nāmˈyər [key], 1888–1960, English historian, b. Poland. He attended the London School of Economics and Oxford and became professor at the Univ. of Manchester in 1931, ...

Lewis, Sir George Cornewall

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, 1806–63, English statesman and man of letters. Entering Parliament as a Liberal in 1847, he served as chancellor of exchequer (1855–58), home secretary (1859–61), an...