Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mason-Dixon Line

(Encyclopedia)Mason-Dixon Line, boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland (running between lat. 39°43′26.3″N and lat. 39°43′17.6″N), surveyed by the English team of Charles Mason, a mathematician and ast...

borage

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Forget-me-not, Myosotis virginica, a member of the borage family borage bŏrˈəj, bŭrˈ– [key], common name for the Boraginaceae, a family of widely distributed herbs and some tropical shr...

Lee, Fitzhugh

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Fitzhugh, 1835–1905, Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, b. “Clermont,” Fairfax co., Va.; nephew of Robert E. Lee. He campaigned against the Comanche in Texas and later w...

Falls Church

(Encyclopedia)Falls Church, independent city (2020 pop. 14,917), NE Va., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. as a town 1875, as a city 1948. There is diver...

Bridges, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bridges, Charles, fl. 1683–1740, English portrait painter, active (c.1735–c.1740) in Virginia. He was the most skillful practitioner of aristocratic portrait painting in the South. Among the works...

Fort Necessity

(Encyclopedia)Fort Necessity, entrenched camp built in July, 1754, by George Washington and his Virginia militia at Great Meadows (near the present Uniontown, Pa.). He retired there when he learned that the British...

Arlington, county, United States

(Encyclopedia)Arlington, county (2020 pop. 238,643), N Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Arlington is a residential and commercial suburb of Washington. Within its boundaries are Arlin...

Spotswood, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Spotswood, Alexander, 1676–1740, colonial governor of Virginia, b. Tangier, Morocco. Appointed in 1710, he was officially lieutenant governor under the nominal governorship of George Hamilton, 1st e...

state flowers

(Encyclopedia)state flowers. Each state of the United States has designated, usually by legislative action, one flower as its floral emblem; the rose has been designated by Congress as the national flower of the Un...

Tygart

(Encyclopedia)Tygart tīˈgərt [key], river, c.160 mi (260 km) long, rising in E West Virginia and flowing north to join the West Fork and form the Monongahela at Fairmont. Tygart River Dam (completed 1938), near ...

Browse by Subject