Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hale, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Benjamin, 1797–1863, American educator, b. Newburyport, Mass., grad. Bowdoin, 1818. He served as tutor at Bowdoin and in 1823 founded and became principal of Gardiner Lyceum, Gardiner, Maine, ...

Angell, James Burrill

(Encyclopedia)Angell, James Burrill jāmz bûrˈəl ānˈjəl [key], 1829–1916, American educator, editor, and diplomat, b. Scituate, R.I., grad. Brown, 1849, and studied abroad. He became professor of modern lan...

Mun, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Mun, Thomas mŭn [key], 1571–1641, English writer on economics. A merchant in Italy and the Levant, he became (1615) a director in the East India Company. In his Discourse of Trade from England unto...

Murphy, Charles Francis

(Encyclopedia)Murphy, Charles Francis, 1858–1924, American political boss, b. New York City. He was the owner of many saloons in New York City and took a keen interest in Democratic politics. His services to Tamm...

Sheeler, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Sheeler, Charles, 1883–1965, American painter and photographer, b. Philadelphia, studied at the School of Industrial Art there and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under William M....

Hare, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Hare, Sir David, 1947–, British playwright. Hare is a prominent member of the British theatrical left. A founder of the Portable Theatre and the Joint Stock, he became resident dramatist at the Roya...

Indian Affairs, Bureau of

(Encyclopedia)Indian Affairs, Bureau of, created (1824) in the U.S. War Dept. and transferred (1849) to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The War Dept. managed Native American affairs after 1789, but a separate burea...

ligand

(Encyclopedia)ligand lĭgˈənd [key], charged or uncharged molecule with one or more unshared pairs of electrons that can attach to a central metallic atom or ion to form an aggregate known as a complex ion (see c...

Yazoo land fraud

(Encyclopedia)Yazoo land fraud, name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislat...

boycott

(Encyclopedia)boycott, concerted economic or social ostracism of an individual, group, or nation to express disapproval or coerce change. The practice was named (1880) after Capt. Charles Cunningham Boycott, an Eng...

Browse by Subject