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Orpen, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Orpen, Sir William, 1878–1931, British portrait and genre painter, b. Ireland. He is best known for his scenes of Irish daily life, his paintings and sketches of life at the front in World War I, an...

Eryx

(Encyclopedia)Eryx ĕrˈĭks [key], ancient city, W Sicily, Italy. Long a source of conflict between Carthage and Syracuse, it was destroyed (c.260 b.c.) by the Carthaginians in the First Punic War. Its temple of V...

Ganesa

(Encyclopedia)Ganesa gənāˈsə [key], b. 1507, d. after 1564, Indian astronomer. As a boy of 13 in a village N of Mumbai, Ganesa wrote a treatise on astronomy, the Grahalaghava, which has often been reprinted and...

Fogelberg, Bengt Erland

(Encyclopedia)Fogelberg, Bengt Erland bĕngt ĕrˈländ fo͞oˈgəlbĕrˌyə [key], 1786–1854, Swedish sculptor. He studied in Stockholm, in Paris, and in Rome, where he lived for many years. His statues of Greek...

Burnham, Sherburne Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, 1838–1921, American astronomer, b. Thetford, Vt. After serving as observer at Dearborn Observatory, Chicago (1877–81, 1882–84), and as astronomer at Lick Observatory (...

Aphrodite

(Encyclopedia)Aphrodite ăfrədīˈtē [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. Homer designated her the child of Zeus and Dione. Hesiod's account of her birth is more popular...

Reber, Gröte

(Encyclopedia)Reber, Gröte, 1911–2002, American radio engineer, b. Chicago, Ill. After graduating from the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1933, Reber worked for seve...

Lowell, Percival

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Percival, 1855–1916, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1876; brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. He visited Korea and Japan, where he acted as counselor and foreig...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...

Tenerani, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Tenerani, Pietro pyĕˈtrō tānāräˈnē [key], c.1789–1869, Italian sculptor. He studied with both Canova and Thorvaldsen. Of his many works on classical and Christian subjects, the best known in...