Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Howe, Richard Howe, Earl

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Richard Howe, Earl, 1726–99, British admiral; elder brother of Viscount Howe. He won early recognition in the Seven Years War for his operations in the English Channel. After the outbreak of t...

Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg

(Encyclopedia)Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg, 1817–73, Union general in the Civil War, b. Kentucky, grad. West Point, 1839. He fought in the Seminole War and in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, Canby commanded th...

Arnold, Sir Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Arnold, Sir Edwin, 1832–1904, English author. After serving as principal of the government college in Pune, India, he joined (1861) the staff of the London Daily Telegraph. He won fame for his blank...

MacKenzie, Sir Compton

(Encyclopedia)MacKenzie, Sir Compton, 1883–1972, English author, b. West Hartelpool, Durham, educated at Oxford. In Apr., 1923, he founded the Gramophone, a periodical devoted to reviewing recordings. A prolific ...

Reed, Sir Carol

(Encyclopedia)Reed, Sir Carol, 1906–76, English film director, b. London. He acted and directed on the stage before turning to films in the mid-1930s. Reed powerfully portrayed characters at the end of their teth...

Abercrombie, Sir Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Abercrombie, Sir Patrick, 1879–1957, British architect and town planner. Professor of civil design at the Univ. of Liverpool from 1915 to 1935 and of town planning at the Univ. of London after 1935,...

Harington, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Harington, Sir John, 1560?–1612, English author. He spent most of his career at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, where he became known for his indelicate humor. His Rabelaisian Metamorphosis of Ajax ...

Spencer, Sir Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Spencer, Sir Stanley, 1891–1959, English painter. In his landscapes and his often highly erotic portraits and religious-allegorical scenes, Spencer's paintings express a highly personal magic realis...

Burnes, Sir Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Burnes, Sir Alexander, 1805–41, British traveler in India. As an army officer in India, he studied Asian languages. In 1832 he left Lahore in Afghan dress and traveled by way of Peshawar and Kabul a...

Chadwick, Sir Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Chadwick, Sir Edwin, 1800–1890, English social reformer. For many years an assistant to Jeremy Bentham, Chadwick applied Bentham's utilitarianism to the reform (1834) of the Poor Law and to the deve...

Browse by Subject