Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Black, Hugo LaFayette

(Encyclopedia)Black, Hugo LaFayette, 1886–1971, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937–71), b. Harlan, Clay co., Ala. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Alabama in 1906. He practiced law an...

liberal arts

(Encyclopedia)liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and...

Liberty party

(Encyclopedia)Liberty party, in U.S. history, an antislavery political organization founded in 1840. It was formed by those abolitionists, under the leadership of James G. Birney and Gerrit Smith, who repudiated Wi...

Polish Corridor

(Encyclopedia)Polish Corridor, strip of German territory awarded to newly independent Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The strip, 20 to 70 mi (32–112 km) wide, gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea. It ...

Oneida, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Oneida ōnīˈdə [key], city (1990 pop. 10,850), Madison co., central N.Y.; inc. 1901. Tableware was long the best-known product, and some is still manufactured in neighboring Sherrill, N.Y. Machine ...

Rijeka

(Encyclopedia)Rijeka fēo͞oˈmē, Ital. fyo͞oˈmā [key], city (2011 pop. 128,624), W Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Quarnero. Croatia's largest seaport, the city's industries include shipbuilding, ...

seltzer water

(Encyclopedia)seltzer water, mineral water containing free carbon dioxide, obtained originally from springs at Niederselters, Germany. Reputed to have curative value in treating several diseases, it became very pop...

Underground Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Underground Railroad, in U.S. history, loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern abolitionists,...

Japanese literature

(Encyclopedia)Japanese literature, literary works produced in the language of the islands of Japan. See also Asian drama. The immense public demand for fiction in postwar Japan has been fed by the prolific o...

Chénier, André

(Encyclopedia)Chénier, André äNdrāˈ shānyāˈ [key], 1762–94, French poet, by some critics considered the greatest in 18th-century France. He was born in Constantinople, where his father was consul general,...

Browse by Subject