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pencil

(Encyclopedia)pencil, pointed implement used in writing or drawing to apply graphite or a similar colored solid to any surface, especially paper. From prehistoric times lumps of colored earth or chalk were used as ...

Cochin, Charles Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Cochin, Charles Nicolas shärl nēkôläˈ kôshăNˈ [key], 1715–90, French engraver, designer, writer on art, and painter to the French court. His works, more than 1,500 in number, include histori...

silverpoint

(Encyclopedia)silverpoint, method of drawing whereby a silver-tipped instrument is dragged across paper prepared with ground bone dust and gum water and then tinted with a pigment. The procedure results in drawings...

Talbot, William Henry Fox

(Encyclopedia)Talbot, William Henry Fox, 1800–1877, English inventor of photographic processes (see photography, still). A man of enormously versatile intelligence, he invented the “photogenic drawing” proces...

Little Richard

(Encyclopedia)Little Richard, 1935–2020, American musician and singer, b. Macon, Ga., as Richard Wayne Penniman. One of the first rock musicians in the 1950s, he recorded such tunes as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long...

Van Allsburg, Chris

(Encyclopedia)Van Allsburg, Chris, 1949–, American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. East Grand Rapids, Mich., B.F.A. Univ. of Michigan, 1972, M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design, 1975. Originally a...

Willis, Nathaniel Parker

(Encyclopedia)Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1806–67, American author, b. Portland, Maine, grad. Yale, 1827. He was editor of the periodical the Legendary and later of the Token before founding (1829) the American Mon...

compass

(Encyclopedia)compass. 1 In mathematics, an instrument for making circles and measuring distances. Frequently called a pair of compasses, it consists of two metal legs with one end of each attached to a pivot to fo...

Velasco, José María

(Encyclopedia)Velasco, José María hōsāˈ märēˈä vāläsˈkō [key], 1840–1912, Mexican landscape painter; teacher of Diego Rivera. A gifted artisan descended from a family of shawl weavers, he entered the...

Ramón y Cajal, Santiago

(Encyclopedia)Ramón y Cajal, Santiago säntyäˈgō rämōnˈ ē kähälˈ [key], 1852–1934, Spanish histologist, widely considered the father of neuroscience. He was a university professor at Valencia (1881–8...

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