Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Adams, Samuel Hopkins

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Samuel Hopkins, 1871–1958, American author, b. Dunkirk, N.Y., grad. Hamilton College, 1891. He was a reporter for the New York Sun (1891–1900) and then joined McClure's Magazine, where he g...

Sillanpää, Frans Eemil

(Encyclopedia)Sillanpää, Frans Eemil fräns āˈmĭl sĭlˈlänpăˌ [key], 1888–1964, Finnish novelist. As a young man Sillanpää studied natural science at Helsinki and came under the influence of an artisti...

cameo

(Encyclopedia)cameo kămˈēō [key], small relief carving, usually on striated precious or semiprecious stones or on shell. The design, often a portrait head, is commonly cut in the light-colored vein, and the dar...

caravel

(Encyclopedia)caravel kärˈvəl [key], three-masted sailing vessel, generally square-rigged with the aftermast lateen-rigged. It had a roundish hull with a high bow and stern. The term “carvel-built” (see boat...

Cretaceous period

(Encyclopedia)Cretaceous period krĭtāˈshəs [key], third and last period of the Mesozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table), lasting from approximately 144 to 65 millio...

fold

(Encyclopedia)fold, in geology, bent or deformed arrangement of stratified rocks. These rocks may be of sedimentary or volcanic origin. Although stratified rocks are normally deposited on the earth's surface in hor...

New Age

(Encyclopedia)New Age, a term popularized in the 1980s to describe a wide-ranging set of beliefs and practices that are an outgrowth of the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s in the United States. Adherents of the...

Newman, Arnold Abner

(Encyclopedia)Newman, Arnold Abner, 1918–2006, American portrait photographer, b. New York City. He is known for his “environmental portraiture,” photographs that capture their sitters in characteristic setti...

Norilsk

(Encyclopedia)Norilsk nərēlskˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 175,000), Krasnoyarsk Territory, N Siberian Russia. The northernmost major city of Russia and the world's second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arct...

Nueva Galicia

(Encyclopedia)Nueva Galicia nwāˈvä gälēˈsyä [key], Spanish colonial administrative region, W Mexico, comprising roughly the present states of Jalisco and Nayarit with S Sinaloa. Conquered (1529–31) by Nuñ...