Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

311 results found

Stamford, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Stamford, city (1990 pop. 108,056), Fairfield co., SW Conn., on Long Island Sound; settled 1641, inc. 1893 as a city within the town of Stamford (the two were consolidated in 1949). A variety of light...

narwhal

(Encyclopedia)narwhal närˈwəl [key], a small arctic whale, Monodon monoceros. The males of the species, and an occasional female, bear a single, tightly spiraled tusk that measures up to 9 ft (2.7 m) in length. ...

drying oil

(Encyclopedia)drying oil, any of several natural oils which, when exposed to the air, oxidize to form a tough, elastic film. The common drying oils are cottonseed oil (see cotton), corn oil, soybean oil, tung oil, ...

Evans, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Evans, Charles, 1850–1935, American librarian and bibliographer, b. Boston. He organized many major American libraries including the Indianapolis public library, the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Balt...

Ersch, Johann Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Ersch, Johann Samuel yōˈhän zäˈmo͞oĕl ĕrsh [key], 1766–1828, German encyclopedist, first editor of the great encyclopedia known as Ersch and Gruber's. At his death, 17 volumes had been compl...

Barbier, Antoine Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Barbier, Antoine Alexandre äNtwänˈ älĕksäNˈdrə bärbyāˈ [key], 1765–1825, French bibliographer and government librarian. Barbier was one of a committee appointed to collect works suppresse...

Jenner, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Jenner, Edward, 1749–1823, English physician; pupil of John Hunter. His invaluable experiments beginning in 1796 with the vaccination of eight-year-old James Phipps proved that cowpox provided immun...

Krasznahorkai, Lázló

(Encyclopedia)Krasznahorkai, Lázló, 1954–, Hungarian writer known for his strange, bleak, obsessive, and surreal novels, short stories, and film scripts. Usually marked by grim rural settings, and often featuri...

King, Henry

(Encyclopedia)King, Henry, 1592–1669, English poet. He became bishop of Chichester in 1642. Elegies constitute nearly half his work, his most notable being “The Exequy,” written on the death of his young wife...

Melville, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Herman, 1819–91, American author, b. New York City, considered one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature. Like Moby-Dick, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (18...
 

Browse by Subject