Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Nollekens, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Nollekens, Joseph nŏlˈĭkənz [key], 1737–1823, English sculptor, b. London. He studied in Rome and in 1770 returned to London, where he became the most fashionable portrait sculptor of his day. A...

Erlanger, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Erlanger, Joseph ûrˈlăng-ər [key], 1874–1965, American scientist, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1895), M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1899. For his contributions to physiology, especia...

Joachim, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Joachim, Joseph yōˈsĕf yōˈäkhĭm [key], 1831–1907, Hungarian violinist; friend of Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Schumann. In his long career his performances of violin masterpieces came to be accep...

Bramah, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Bramah, Joseph brămˈə, bräˈ– [key], 1748–1814, English inventor. In 1784 he took out his first patent on a safety lock, and in 1795 he patented his hydraulic press, known as the Bramah press ...

Donner, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Donner, Richard, 1930-2021, American film director, b. Bronx, N.Y., as Richard Donald Schwartzberg. Donner came from a Russian, Jewish immigrant family....

Whately, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Whately, Richard hwātˈlē [key], 1787–1863, English prelate and writer. Fellow and tutor of Oriel College, Oxford, he published a witty work aimed at extreme skeptics, Historic Doubts Relative to ...

Leacock, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Leacock, Richard, 1921–2011, Anglo-American filmmaker, b. London. A key figure in the development of cinéma vérité, he also helped create the camera and sound equipment that made the style possib...

Serra, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Serra, Richard, 1939–, American sculptor, b. San Francisco; grad. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (B.A., 1961), Yale (B.F.A., M.F.A., 1974). Many of his early works (1960s) are cast in rubber or ...

Beuys, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Beuys, Joseph yōˈzĕf bois [key], 1921–86, German artist, b. Krefeld; one of the most influential of postmodern artists. Drafted into the Luftwaffe during World War II, he was wounded several time...

Browse by Subject