Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

White, Walter Francis

(Encyclopedia)White, Walter Francis, 1893–1955, American civil-rights leader, b. Atlanta, Ga., grad. Atlanta Univ., 1916. From 1931 until his death he was secretary of the National Association for the Advancement...

essay

(Encyclopedia)essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

Kerr, Walter Francis

(Encyclopedia)Kerr, Walter Francis, 1913–96, American drama critic, b. Evanston, Ill. He wrote for the theater in the 1930s, and became drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1951 and for the New York Ti...

White, John, artist, cartographer, Virginia pioneer

(Encyclopedia)White, John, fl. 1585–93, artist, cartographer, and Virginia pioneer, b. probably in England. In 1585 he was commissioned to go with the expedition to Roanoke Island to depict life in the New World....

Wayland Smith

(Encyclopedia)Wayland Smith, in English folklore, a skillful blacksmith and great armor maker, whose forge was near the White Horse (Oxfordshire). He appears in the Old English Beowulf and Deor and in Sir Walter Sc...

Francis, Sam

(Encyclopedia)Francis, Sam, 1923–94, American painter, b. San Mateo, Calif. Educated in medicine, Francis began painting while recovering from an injury received in World War II. His mural-sized paintings are sta...

Dare, Virginia

(Encyclopedia)Dare, Virginia, b. 1587, first white child of English parents to be born in America. She was the daughter of Ananias and Elenor Dare, members of Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated colony that settled Roan...

Lane, Sir Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Lane, Sir Ralph, c.1530–1603, leader of the first attempted English settlement in America, on Roanoke Island, N.C. Sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, the expedition of over 100 colonists left England in Ap...

De Maria, Walter Joseph

(Encyclopedia)De Maria, Walter Joseph, 1935–2013, American sculptor, b. Albany, Calif. From the late 1950s into the 60s De Maria partcipated in “Happenings,” created Dada-influenced minimalist sculptures, and...

Robin Hood

(Encyclopedia)Robin Hood, legendary hero of 12th-century England who robbed the rich to help the poor. Chivalrous, manly, fair, and always ready for a joke, Robin Hood reflected many of the ideals of the English ye...
 

Browse by Subject