Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Chapais, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Chapais, Sir Thomas shäpāˈ [key], 1858–1946, Canadian politician and historian, b. Quebec prov.; son of Jean Charles Chapais (1811–85). Thomas Chapais became professor of history at Laval Univ....

Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre or Alexandre dümäˈ, älĕksäNˈ– [key] 1762–1806, French revolutionary general, b. Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) as Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, father of Ale...

Scott, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Scott, Thomas, 1747–1821, English clergyman and biblical scholar. Ordained a priest in 1773, he served in several curacies. In Olney he succeeded (1781) John Newton, through whose influence his view...

Conway, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Conway, Thomas, 1735–1800?, general in the Continental army in the American Revolution, b. Ireland. Educated in France, he was an officer in the French army before coming (1777) to America. He fough...

Graham, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Thomas, 1805–69, Scottish chemist, best known for research in diffusion in both gases and liquids that led to his formulation of Graham's law. His discovery that certain substances (e.g., gl...

Doughty, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Doughty, Thomas, 1793–1856, American painter of the Hudson River school, b. Philadelphia. Although self-taught, he was one of the first American landscape painters to win widespread recognition at h...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Hobbes, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hobbes, Thomas hŏbz [key], 1588–1679, English philosopher, grad. Magdalen College, Oxford, 1608. For many years a tutor in the Cavendish family, Hobbes took great interest in mathematics, physics, ...

Coke, Thomas William

(Encyclopedia)Coke, Thomas William ko͝ok [key], 1752–1842, English agricultural reformer. Created earl of Leicester of Holkham in 1837, he was known as Coke of Holkham. He improved breeds of cattle, sheep, and h...

Sheraton, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sheraton, Thomas, 1751–1806, English designer of furniture and author. He may have been apprenticed to a cabinetmaker, and as an earnest Baptist he wrote religious books and preached. Records show t...

Browse by Subject