Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Spangenberg, August Gottlieb

(Encyclopedia)Spangenberg, August Gottlieb ouˈgo͝ost gôtˈlēp shpängˈənbĕrk [key], 1704–92, a bishop of the Moravian Church and a founder of that church in America, b. Prussia. While at the Univ. of Jena,...

box turtle

(Encyclopedia)box turtle, hard-shelled land turtle of the genus Terrapene, native to North America. Its lower shell, or plastron, has a hinge dividing it into front and rear sections; the animal can raise these sec...

Cooper, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Thomas, 1759–1839, American scientist, educator, and political philosopher, b. London, educated at Oxford. His important works include Political Essays (1799); the appendixes to the Memoirs ...

Shelby

(Encyclopedia)Shelby, city (1990 pop. 14,669), seat of Cleveland co., W N.C., in a fertile piedmont farming (cotton, grain, soybeans, livestock) area; inc. 1843. There is dairy processing, and plastic and metal pro...

Wilmington

(Encyclopedia)Wilmington. 1 City (1990 pop. 71,529), seat of New Castle co., NE Del., on the Delaware River and tributary streams, the Christina and the Brandywine; settled 1638, inc. as a city 1832. The state's la...

Boone, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Boone, Daniel, 1734–1820, American frontiersman, b. Oley (now Exeter) township, near Reading, Pa. The Boones, English Quakers, left Pennsylvania in 1750 and settled (1751 or 1752) in the Yadkin vall...

Santee, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Santee săntēˈ [key], river, 143 mi (230 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree rivers, central S.C., and flowing SE to the Atlantic Ocean. The Santee-Wateree-Catawba system ...

mountain ash, in botany

(Encyclopedia)mountain ash, name for any species of the genus Sorbus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), hardy ornamental trees and shrubs native to the Northern Hemisphere, not related to the true ashes. They ar...

Florence, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Florence. 1 City (2020 pop. 40,184), seat of Lauderdale co., NW Ala., on the Tennessee River near Muscle Shoals and adjacent to Wilson ...

jasmine

(Encyclopedia)jasmine jĕsˈəmĭn [key], any plant of the genus Jasminum of the family Oleaceae (olive family). The genus, which includes shrubs and clambering plants, is an Old World group, chiefly of tropical an...

Browse by Subject