Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Patterson

(Encyclopedia)Patterson, family of American journalists. Robert Wilson Patterson, 1850–1910, b. Chicago, grad. Williams, 1871, became (1871) a reporter on the Chicago Times and after 1873 was attached to the Chic...

McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold

(Encyclopedia)McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold, 1819–1907, British arctic explorer. As a lieutenant in the navy he was assigned to his first arctic service in 1848, when Sir James Clark Ross went in search of the ...

Burgess, John William

(Encyclopedia)Burgess, John William, 1844–1931, American educator and political scientist, b. Tennessee. He served in the Union army in the Civil War and after the war graduated from Amherst (1867). He was admitt...

American Philosophical Society

(Encyclopedia)American Philosophical Society, first scientific society in America, founded (1743) in Philadelphia. It was an outgrowth of the Junto formed (1727) by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the first secreta...

Howe, Louis McHenry

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Louis McHenry, 1871–1936, American journalist and political adviser to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, b. Indianapolis, Ind. He wrote about politics for several newspapers, then became involve...

Bulfinch, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bulfinch, Charles, 1763–1844, American architect, b. Boston. A member of the Boston board of selectmen in 1791, he was chosen chairman in 1799—an office equivalent to mayor and held by Bulfinch fo...

Edwards, Sir Robert Geoffrey

(Encyclopedia)Edwards, Sir Robert Geoffrey, 1925–2013, British physiologist, Ph.D. Edinburgh Univ., 1955. In 1963 he became a research fellow at Cambridge. He was associated with the university until his death, a...

Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, 1571–1631, English antiquarian. The Cottonian collection of books, manuscripts, coins, and antiquities became a part of the British Museum when it was founded in 1753. Cott...

Cunninghame Graham, Robert Bontine

(Encyclopedia)Cunninghame Graham, Robert Bontine kŭnˈĭngəm [key], 1852–1936, British politician and author. He lived as a cattle rancher in Argentina and traveled widely in Latin America, Morocco, and Spain. ...

Curl, Robert Floyd, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Curl, Robert Floyd, Jr., 1933–, American chemist, b. Alice, Tex., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1957. Curl has been a professor at Rice Univ. in Houston, Tex., since 1958. In 1996 he was awar...