Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rockefeller, William

(Encyclopedia)Rockefeller, William, 1841–1922, American financier, b. Tioga co., N.Y.; brother of John D. Rockefeller. He joined (1865) his brother in the oil-refining business. William was a successful stock mar...

Beebe, William

(Encyclopedia)Beebe, William (Charles William Beebe) bēˈbē [key], 1877–1962, American ornithologist, explorer, and author, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.S. Columbia, 1898. He became (1899) curator of ornithology and la...

Bent, William

(Encyclopedia)Bent, William, 1809–69, American frontiersman, b. St. Louis. One of the younger brothers of Charles Bent, he was for many years the manager of Bent's Fort, while Charles Bent lived mainly in Taos. W...

Thomson, Peter William

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Peter William, 1929–2018, Australian golfer. A leading player in European tournaments at a time when Australians had not yet emerged as top golfers, Thomson had a compact swing and efficien...

Cobbett, William

(Encyclopedia)Cobbett, William kŏbˈĭt [key], 1763?–1835, British journalist and reformer. The son of a farm laborer, he ran away from home at 14 and later joined the British army. He resigned in order to expos...

Forster, William Edward

(Encyclopedia)Forster, William Edward, 1818–86, British statesman. He entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1861. As vice president of the council in William Gladstone's first ministry (1868–74), he introduced the...

Frederick William IV

(Encyclopedia)Frederick William IV, 1795–1861, king of Prussia (1840–61), son and successor of Frederick William III. A romanticist and a mystic, he conceived vague schemes of reform based on a revival of the m...

William I, king of the Netherlands

(Encyclopedia)William I, 1772–1843, first king of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815–40), son of Prince William V of Orange, last stadtholder of the Netherlands. He commanded (1793–95) the Dut...

Eustis, William

(Encyclopedia)Eustis, William yo͞oˈstĭs [key], 1753–1825, U.S. government official, b. Cambridge, Mass. A surgeon in the patriot forces during the American Revolution, he later served (1801–5) in Congress as...

Baziotes, William

(Encyclopedia)Baziotes, William băzēōˈtēz [key], 1912–64, American painter, b. Pittsburgh. Baziotes's works of the 1940s and 50s are largely abstract images, usually with brooding, primitive qualities encomp...