Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pärt, Arvo

(Encyclopedia)Pärt, Arvo pârt [key], 1935–, Estonian composer, b. Paide; grad. Tallinn Conservatory (1963). He worked for Estonian radio (1958–67), left his homeland (1980, then part of the USSR), and settled...

Bedford, Gunning, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Bedford, Gunning, Jr., 1747–1812, American political leader, b. Philadelphia. Settling in Delaware, Bedford became a member of the local legislature, attorney general (1784–89), and a delegate to ...

Seven Churches in Asia

(Encyclopedia)Seven Churches in Asia, addressed in the preface of the Book of Revelation. They are the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia (Lydia), and Laodicea (Phrygia). They are...

Conwell, Russell Herman

(Encyclopedia)Conwell, Russell Herman, 1843–1925, American Baptist minister and lecturer, b. Worthington, Mass. After practicing law, he was ordained (1879) and went to Philadelphia as a minister. He was founder ...

Coxe, William

(Encyclopedia)Coxe, William, 1762–1831, American pomologist, b. Philadelphia. His experiments and his book, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit-Trees and the Management of Orchards and Cider (1817), had a pronounc...

Darley, Felix Octavius Carr

(Encyclopedia)Darley, Felix Octavius Carr, 1822–88, American illustrator, lithographer, and painter, b. Philadelphia. He is best known for his pen-and-ink drawings, which, for their inventiveness, versatility, vi...

Jarvis, John Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Jarvis, John Wesley, 1781?–1839, American portrait painter, b. England. Beginning as an engraver in Philadelphia, he early moved to New York, where he became a popular portrait painter. In City Hall...

Bryn Mawr

(Encyclopedia)Bryn Mawr brĭn mär [key], uninc. town (2020 pop. 3,708), Montgomery co., SE Pa., a resident...

Koprowski, Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Koprowski, Hilary, 1916–2013, Polish-American microbiologist and immunologist, b. Warsaw, M.D. Univ. of Warsaw, 1939. He fled Poland after the Nazi invasion (1939), making his way to Brazil where he...

Anderson, Marian

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Marian, 1897–1993, American contralto, b. Philadelphia. She was the first African American to be named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, as well as the first to perform...

Browse by Subject