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Babson, Roger Ward

(Encyclopedia)Babson, Roger Ward, 1875–1967, American businessman and statistician, b. Gloucester, Mass. In 1904 he founded the Babson Statistical Organization, Inc., whose business and financial statistics, publ...

Bernard, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Bernard, Sir Francis bûrˈnərd [key], 1712–79, British colonial governor. He was educated at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1737. As colonial governor of New Jersey (1758–60), he did much t...

Know-Nothing movement

(Encyclopedia)Know-Nothing movement, in U.S. history. The increasing rate of immigration in the 1840s encouraged nativism. In Eastern cities where Roman Catholic immigrants especially had concentrated and were welc...

Williams, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Roger, c.1603–1683, clergyman, advocate of religious freedom, founder of Rhode Island, b. London. A protégé of Sir Edward Coke, he graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1627 and...

Kennelly, Arthur Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Kennelly, Arthur Edwin kĕnˈəlē [key], 1861–1939, American electrical engineer, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India, educated at University College School, London. He was Edison's chief electrical assi...

Harris, Barbara Clementine

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Barbara Clementine, 1930–2020, American Episcopal bishop, b. Philadelphia. An African American, Harris was active in the civil-rights movement in the 1960s (and remained active in social cau...

Gordon, Bruce S.

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Bruce S., 1946–, African-American business executive and civil-rights leader, b. Camden, N.J.; grad. Gettysburg College (B.A., 1968), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., 1988). Gord...

Ames, Oakes

(Encyclopedia)Ames, Oakes, 1804–73, American manufacturer, railroad promoter, and politician, b. Easton, Mass. With his brother Oliver he managed the family's well-known shovel factory at Easton. The business gre...

Downing, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Downing, Sir George, 1623–84, English diplomat. A nephew of Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts, he was educated at Harvard. He returned (1646) to England, joined the parliamentarians, and was appoi...

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