Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Goldin, Nan

(Encyclopedia)Goldin, Nan, 1953–, American photographer, b. Washington, D.C. She left home in her early teens for a series of mainly urban bohemian undergrounds; her earliest photographs were evocative black-and-...

typhoid fever

(Encyclopedia)typhoid fever acute, generalized infection caused by Salmonella typhi. The main sources of infection are contaminated water or milk and, especially in urban communities, food handlers who are carriers...

Parks, Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Parks, Gordon (Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks), 1912–2006, African-American photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer, b. Fort Scott, Kans. Parks purchased his first camera in 1938 and be...

Gardner, John William

(Encyclopedia)Gardner, John William, 1912–2002, American public official, U.S. secretary of health, education, and welfare (1965–68), b. Los Angeles. After teaching psychology at Connecticut and Mt. Holyoke col...

edge cities

(Encyclopedia)edge cities, term designating commercial complexes that have grown up on the margins of large American cities, a development that dates mainly from the 1970s. The term was coined by Joel Garreau in hi...

bus

(Encyclopedia)bus [Lat. omnibus=for all], large public conveyance. A horse-drawn urban omnibus was introduced in Paris in 1662 by Blaise Pascal and his associates, but it remained in operation for only a few years....

Calixtus I, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Calixtus I, Callixtus I, or Callistus I, Saint kəlĭkˈstəs, kəlĭsˈtəs [key], c.160–c.222, pope (217–222), a Roman; successor of St. Zephyrinus. As archdeacon to Zephyrinus he established th...

Brace, Charles Loring

(Encyclopedia)Brace, Charles Loring, 1826–90, American clergyman and social reformer, b. Litchfield, Conn. America's pioneer children's advocate, he founded (1853) the Children's Aid Society of New York, an organ...

Montpellier

(Encyclopedia)Montpellier môNpĕlyāˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 210,866), capital of Hérault dept., S France, near the Mediterranean coast. It is a great commercial center. Its industries, many of them recently dev...

Mahmud I

(Encyclopedia)Mahmud I mämo͞odˈ, mäˈmo͞od [key], 1696–1754, Ottoman sultan (1730–54), son of Mustafa II, nephew and successor of Ahmed III. A revolt of the Janissaries put him on the throne of the Ottoman...