Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

262 results found

Arnold, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Arnold, Thomas, 1795–1842, English educator, b. Isle of Wight, educated at Winchester school and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1815 to 1819, was o...

knitting

(Encyclopedia)knitting, construction of a fabric made of interlocking loops of yarn by means of needles. Knitting, allied in origin to weaving and to the netting and knotting of fishnets and snares, was apparently ...

Great Barrier Reef

(Encyclopedia)Great Barrier Reef, largest complex of coral reef in the world, c.1,250 mi (2,000 km) long, in the Coral Sea, forming a natural breakwater for the coast of Queensland, NE Australia. Composed of more t...

Trilling, Lionel

(Encyclopedia)Trilling, Lionel, 1905–75, American critic, author, and teacher, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1925; M.A., 1926; Ph.D., 1938). He began teaching literature at Columbia in 1932 and became a...

Perry, Oliver Hazard

(Encyclopedia)Perry, Oliver Hazard, 1785–1819, American naval officer, b. South Kingstown, R.I.; brother of Matthew Calbraith Perry. Appointed a midshipman in 1799, he served in the Tripolitan War, was promoted t...

Baker, Ella Josephine

(Encyclopedia)Baker, Ella Josephine, 1903–1986, U.S. civil rights activist, b. Norfolk, Va. Ella Baker was an activist and organizer whose b...

Housman, A. E.

(Encyclopedia)Housman, A. E. (Alfred Edward Housman) housˈmən [key], 1859–1936, English poet and scholar, whose verse exerted a strong influence on later poets. He left Oxford without a degree because he had fa...

Isherwood, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Isherwood, Christopher ishˈərwo͝od [key], 1904–86, British-American author. After the appearance of his first novel, All the Conspirators (1928), Isherwood went to Germany. The four years he spen...

strength of materials

(Encyclopedia)strength of materials, measurement in engineering of the capacity of metal, wood, concrete, and other materials to withstand stress and strain. Stress is the internal force exerted by one part of an e...

Gospel

(Encyclopedia)Gospel [M.E.,=good news; evangel from Gr.,= good news], a written account of the life of Jesus. Though the Gospels of the New Testament are all anonymous, since the 2d cent. they have been named Matth...