Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Coburn, Alvin Langdon

(Encyclopedia)Coburn, Alvin Langdon kōˈbûrn [key], 1882–1936, American photographer, b. Boston. Coburn began making photographs at eight and was one of the younger members of Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession...

Mahan, Dennis Hart

(Encyclopedia)Mahan, Dennis Hart, 1802–71, American soldier and educator, b. New York City; father of Alfred Thayer Mahan. He graduated (1824) from West Point, and from that year until 1871, except for four years...

Æthelflæd

(Encyclopedia)Æthelflæd –flēˈdə [key], d. 918, daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and wife of Æthelred, ealdorman [alderman or earl] of Mercia. After her husband's death in 911, she ruled the semi-...

Taylor, Robert Love

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Robert Love, 1850–1912, U.S. politician, governor of Tennessee (1887–91, 1897–99), b. Carter co., Tenn. A lawyer, he was a Democrat in Congress (1879–81) and in 1886 defeated his broth...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...

Grant, Mudcat

(Encyclopedia) Grant, Mudcat, 1935-2021, African-American baseball player, b. Lacoochee, Fl., as James Timothy Grant Jr. As a teenager, Grant played baseball, footba...

Barlow, Joel

(Encyclopedia)Barlow, Joel bärˈlō [key], 1754–1812, American writer and diplomat, b. Redding, Conn., grad. Yale, 1778. He was one of the Connecticut Wits and a major contributor to their satirical poem The Ana...

Dance, George

(Encyclopedia)Dance, George, the elder, 1695–1768, English architect. Among his public buildings in London, the most important is the Mansion House (1739–52), an example of the neo-Palladian style. He built the...

Mond, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Mond, Ludwig, 1839–1909, chemist; father of Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett. He was born in Germany and became a naturalized British subject. Mond experimented with alkalies and also develope...

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...

Browse by Subject