Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) bluestocking, derisive term originally applied to certain 18th-century women with pronounced literary interests. During the 1750s, Elizabeth Vesey held evening parties, at which the entertainment cons...

(Encyclopedia) Bynner, Witter bĭnˈər [key], 1881–1968, American poet, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1902. As a poet Bynner had a remarkable facility for catching the cadences of other writers and cultures. ...

(Encyclopedia) Campbell, Keith, 1954–2012, British cell biologist, b. Birmingham, England, Ph.D. Univ. of Sussex, 1986. In 1991 he joined the Edinburgh Research Station of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research (...

(Encyclopedia) absinthe ăbˈsĭnth [key], an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steep...

(Encyclopedia) Hauptmann, Bruno Richard, 1899–1936, convicted kidnapper and murderer, b. Germany. The infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was abducted (Mar. 1, 1932) at Hopewell, N.J., and a ransom of ...

(Encyclopedia) Lichfield, town (1991 pop. 25,408) and district, Staffordshire, W central England. Lichfield is a market town with light industries, famous for its three-spired cathedral and its close associations wi...

(Encyclopedia) Arbuthnot, John ärbŭthˈnət, ärˈbəthnŏt [key], 1667–1735, Scottish author and scientist, court physician (1705–14) to Queen Anne. He is best remembered for his five “John Bull” pamphlet...

(Encyclopedia) Paralympic games, series of international sports contests for athletes with physical, visual, and intellectual impairments. The games grew out of a gathering of British World War II veterans organized...

(Encyclopedia) Briggs, Charles Augustus, 1841–1913, American clergyman, theologian, and educator, b. New York City, studied at the Univ. of Virginia, Union Theological Seminary, and the Univ. of Berlin. From 1875 ...

(Encyclopedia) Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821–1910, American physician, b. England; sister of Henry Brown Blackwell. She was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, which was granted (1849) t...