Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Drinkwater, John

(Encyclopedia)Drinkwater, John, 1882–1937, English author. A founder of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, he was associated with it as actor, director, and general manager for many years. He is best known for his...

self-fulfilling prophecy

(Encyclopedia)self-fulfilling prophecy, a concept developed by Robert K. Merton to explain how a belief or expectation, whether correct or not, affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person (or group) will...

Peary Land

(Encyclopedia)Peary Land, peninsula, N Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It terminates in Cape Bridgman in the northeast and Cape Morris Jesup in the north, the most northerly point of land yet discovered...

Bache Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Bache Peninsula bāch [key], on E Ellesmere Island, in N Nunavut Territory, Canada. U.S. explorer Robert Peary proved this area to be a peninsula when he explored (1898) the region. From 1926 to 1933 ...

New Albany

(Encyclopedia)New Albany, city (1990 pop. 36,322), seat of Floyd co., S Ind., near the falls of the Ohio River opposite Louisville, Ky.; inc. 1819. The city was a shipbuilding center in the 19th cent., and the rive...

Vanderbilt University

(Encyclopedia)Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn.; coeducational; chartered 1872 as Central Univ. of Methodist Episcopal Church, founded and renamed 1873, opened 1875 through a gift from Cornelius Vanderbilt...

Brookings Institution

(Encyclopedia)Brookings Institution, at Washington, D.C.; chartered 1927 as a consolidation of the Institute for Government Research (est. 1916), the Institute of Economics (est. 1922), and the Robert S. Brookings ...

Widener, Harry Elkins

(Encyclopedia)Widener, Harry Elkins wīdˈnər [key], 1885–1912, American bibliophile, b. Philadelphia. He had the greatest Robert Louis Stevenson collection in existence. Widener died at the age of 27 on the Tit...

atomism

(Encyclopedia)atomism, philosophic concept of the nature of the universe, holding that the universe is composed of invisible, indestructible material particles. The theory was first advanced in the 5th cent. b.c. b...

Liddell, Henry George

(Encyclopedia)Liddell, Henry George lĭdˈəl [key], 1811–98, English classical scholar. He was headmaster (1846–55) of Westminster School and dean (1855–91) of Christ Church, Oxford. Liddell is famous for hi...