Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kashan

(Encyclopedia)Kashan käshänˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 155,188), Tehran prov., W central Iran. The city has long been noted for its silk textiles, carpets, ceramics, copperware, and rose water. The Ardebil carpet a...

National Youth Administration

(Encyclopedia)National Youth Administration (NYA), former U.S. government agency established in 1935 within the Works Progress Administration; it was transferred in 1939 to the Federal Security Agency and was place...

Hoogstraten, Samuel van

(Encyclopedia)Hoogstraten, Samuel van säˈmüĕl vän hōkhˈsträtən [key], 1627–78, Dutch portrait painter and etcher, studied with his father, Dirk van Hoogstraten (1596–1640), and with Rembrandt. His best...

Isin

(Encyclopedia)Isin ĭsˈĭn [key], capital of an ancient Semitic kingdom of N Babylonia. The city became important after the third dynasty of Ur fell to the Elamites and the Amorites (c.2025 b.c.). The phase from c...

Dibon

(Encyclopedia)Dibon dīˈbŏn [key] or Dibon-gad, ancient city, E of the Dead Sea, now a ruin called Dhiban. The Moabite stone was found there, and important remains from the Moabite period have been excavated. Ref...

Alcántara

(Encyclopedia)Alcántara älkänˈtärä [key], town, Cáceres prov., W Spain, in Extremadura, near the Tagus River. A fine Roman bridge (Arabic al-kantara) built (a.d. 105–106) in ...

Colton, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Colton, Walter kōlˈtən [key], 1797–1851, American editor, writer, and clergyman, b. Rutland co., Vt. He became a naval chaplain in 1831. His books Ship and Shore (1835), A Visit to Constantinople...

Americana

(Encyclopedia)Americana, term used to describe material printed in or about the Americas, or written by Americans; usually restricted to the formative period in the history of the two continents. Thus the letter wr...

Fischer, Fritz

(Encyclopedia)Fischer, Fritz, 1908–99, German historian. Appointed professor at the Univ. of Hamburg in 1948 (emeritus after 1973), he became famous as the result of his book Griff nach der Weltmacht (1961; tr. G...

Feuerbach, Anselm von

(Encyclopedia)Feuerbach, Anselm von änˈzĕlm fən foiˈərbäkh [key], 1829–80, German painter. He studied in Germany, Paris, and Rome, spending much of his life in Italy. He sought to produce works of pure cla...