Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bechet, Sidney bəshāˈ [key], 1897–1959, American jazz musician, b. New Orleans, La. He began his professional career with his brother Leonard's band in 1911. Later he played with many other bands...

(Encyclopedia) Baffin Bay, ice-clogged body of water, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, between Greenland and NE Canada. It connects with the Arctic Ocean to the north and west and with the Atlantic Ocean to the south by wa...

(Encyclopedia) Leslie, David, d. 1682, Scottish military commander. After serving in the Swedish army, he was a major general under his uncle, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of Leven, in the Scottish army that joined th...

(Encyclopedia) Foote, Henry Stuart, 1804–80, U.S. senator (1847–52) and governor of Mississippi (1852–54), b. Fauquier co., Va. An able criminal lawyer, he practiced in several different states. In the U.S. Se...

(Encyclopedia) Confederacy, name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861–65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union. (For the...

(Encyclopedia) Strauss, Levi, 1829–1902, American merchant, b. Buttenheim, Germany, as Löb Strauss. He moved with his mother and sisters to New York City in 1847 to join his brothers' wholesale dry-goods company....

(Encyclopedia) Hilliard, Nicholas, 1537–1619, English miniature painter, son of a goldsmith. Trained first as a jeweler, he was court painter to Elizabeth and to James I. The first true miniaturist in England, Hil...

(Encyclopedia) Douglas, Donald Wills, 1892–1981, aviation pioneer and aerospace executive, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1914. He helped design the first wind tunnel (1914–15) an...

(Encyclopedia) Davys, John: see Davis, John.

(Encyclopedia) Walker, Robert, d. 1658?, English painter, a follower of Van Dyck and favorite portraitist of Oliver Cromwell. His portraits of Cromwell and his family and followers are convincing studies of Puritan ...