Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

305 results found

Robbins, Jerome

(Encyclopedia)Robbins, Jerome, 1918–98, American choreographer and dancer, b. New York City as Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz. Robbins began his career dancing in musicals (1937). In 1940 he joined the Ballet Theatre a...

Tubman, Harriet

(Encyclopedia)Tubman, Harriet, c.1820–1913, American abolitionist, b. Dorchester co., Md. Born into slavery, she escaped to Phildelphia in 1849, and subsequently became one of the most successful “conductors”...

Brethren

(Encyclopedia)Brethren, German Baptist religious group. They were popularly known as Dunkards, Dunkers, or Tunkers, from the German for “to dip,” referring to their method of baptizing. The Brethren evolved fro...

Duisburg

(Encyclopedia)Duisburg düsˈbo͝ork [key], city, North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, at the confluence of...

Müller, Max

(Encyclopedia)Müller, Max (Friedrich Maximilian Müller, Friedrich Max Müller, or Friedrich Max-Müller) ;frēˈdrĭkh mäkˌsēmēlˈyän [key], 1823–1900, German philologist and Orientalist, b. Dessau; son of...

Liebknecht, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Liebknecht, Karl kärl lēpˈkənĕkht [key], 1871–1919, German socialist, leader of the Spartacus party; son of Wilhelm Liebknecht. His antimilitaristic writings caused his conviction (1907) for hi...

Mason, Bobbie Ann

(Encyclopedia)Mason, Bobbie Ann, 1940–, American regional author, b. Mayfield, Ky., grad. Univ. of Kentucky (B.A., 1962), State Univ. of New York, Binghamton (M.A., 1966), Univ. of Connecticut (Ph.D., 1972). Her ...

Kraepelin, Emil

(Encyclopedia)Kraepelin, Emil krĕpəlēnˈ [key], 1856–1926, German psychiatrist, educated at Würzburg (M.D., 1878). He also studied under Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, and was appointed professor of psychiatry at ...

strawberry

(Encyclopedia)strawberry, any plant of the genus Fragaria of the family Rosaceae (rose family), low herbaceous perennials with edible red fruits, native to temperate and mountainous tropical regions. The European e...

Bebel, August

(Encyclopedia)Bebel, August ouˈgo͝ost bāˈbəl [key], 1840–1913, German Socialist leader. A wood turner by trade, he became a Marxian Socialist under the influence of Wilhelm Liebknecht. At a congress at Eisen...