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Spaulding, Elbridge Gerry

(Encyclopedia)Spaulding, Elbridge Gerry, 1809–97, U.S. banker and politician, b. Locke (now Summer Hill), N.Y. A lawyer practicing in Buffalo, N.Y., after 1834, he gradually became a banker there and was active i...

Brown, Joseph Emerson

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Joseph Emerson, 1821–94, U.S. public official, b. Pickens District, S.C. As governor of Georgia during the Civil War, Brown quarreled with Jefferson Davis over conscription and the suspension...

Warren, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Warren, Joseph, 1741–75, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Roxbury, Mass. A Boston physician, he participated in the agitation against the Stamp Act (1765). He became a member of the B...

Ausable Chasm

(Encyclopedia)Ausable Chasm ôsāˈbəl [key], gorge, 2 mi (3.2 km) long, from 20 to 50 ft (6–15 m) wide, from 100 to 200 ft (30–61 m) deep, NE N.Y. The chasm, with its rapids, waterfalls, and curious rock form...

Asbury Park

(Encyclopedia)Asbury Park, city, Monmouth co., E N.J. An Atlantic resort noted for its beach, boardwalk, and convention hall, it declined in the late 20th cent. but has undergone a revival in the 21st. ...

ash, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)ash, in chemistry, solid residue of combustion. The chemical composition of an ash depends on that of the substance burned. Wood ash contains metal carbonates (e.g., potassium carbonate) and oxides fo...

Illinois, University of

(Encyclopedia)Illinois, University of, main campus at Urbana-Champaign; land-grant with state and federal support; coeducational; chartered 1867, opened 1868 as Illinois Industrial Univ., renamed 1885. It pioneered...

grape hyacinth

(Encyclopedia)grape hyacinth, any plant of the genus Muscari of the family Liliaceae (lily family), low plants with dense spikelike clusters of small, nodding flowers that are usually deep blue. Of more than 50 Old...

Belle Isle, Strait of

(Encyclopedia)Belle Isle, Strait of bĕlīlˈ [key], c.35 mi (60 km) long and from 10 to 15 mi (16–24 km) wide, between the island of Newfoundland and Labrador-Ungava peninsula, Canada. The northern entrance to t...

Queen Elizabeth Islands

(Encyclopedia)Queen Elizabeth Islands, northern part of the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, N Canada. Ellesmere Island (the largest), the Parry group (Melville, Bathurst, Devon, Prince Patric...