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Quabbin Reservoir

(Encyclopedia)Quabbin Reservoir kwŏbˈĭn [key], 39 sq mi (101 sq km), in the Swift River valley, central Mass., NE of Springfield. The reservoir, formed by Winsor Dam and Quabbin Dike, is the largest reservoir in...

gross national product

(Encyclopedia)gross national product (GNP), in economics, a quantitative measure of a nation's total economic activity, generally assessed yearly or quarterly. In estimating the GNP, only the final value of a produ...

Kendrick, John

(Encyclopedia)Kendrick, John, c.1740–1794, American sea captain, b. Massachusetts. During part of the American Revolution he commanded privateers. As commander of an expedition composed of the Columbia and Washin...

Lyman, Theodore

(Encyclopedia)Lyman, Theodore, 1833–97, American naturalist, b. Waltham, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1855, and Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1858. He was in the Union army as an aide (1863–65) on the staff of ...

Framingham State University

(Encyclopedia)Framingham State University, at Framingham, Mass.; chartered 1838, opened 1839 at Lexington, moved to Framingham 1853, a normal school until 1930. Formerly known as the Massachusetts State Teachers Co...

Dawes, Henry Laurens

(Encyclopedia)Dawes, Henry Laurens, 1816–1903, U.S. Senator (1875–93), b. Cummington, Mass. He was U.S. district attorney for W Massachusetts (1853–57) and a Republican member of the House of Representatives ...

Shaw, Robert Gould

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837–63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised i...

Richardson, William Adams

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, William Adams, 1821–96, American jurist and U.S. secretary of the Treasury, b. Tyngsboro, Mass. Admitted to the bar in 1846, he helped to codify the statute law of Massachusetts in 1855....

Wright, Carroll Davidson

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Carroll Davidson, 1840–1909, American statistician, b. Dunbarton, N.H. His varied experience included a term (1872–73) in the Massachusetts senate. As U.S. commissioner of labor he organiz...

Solow, Robert M.

(Encyclopedia)Solow, Robert M., 1924–, American economist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard (B.A. 1947, M.A. 1949, Ph.D. 1951). He began teaching economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. So...

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