Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wilkins, Roger, 1932–2017, American government official, civil-rights activists, journalist, and educator, b. Kansas City, Mo., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1953; LL.B. 1956); nephew of Roy Wilkin...

(Encyclopedia) Gist, Christopher gĭst [key], c.1706–1759, American frontiersman, b. Maryland. Commissioned by the Ohio Company to explore their western lands. In 1750 he descended the Ohio River, explored E Kentu...

(Encyclopedia) Luray lo͝orāˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 4,587), seat of Page co., N Va., in the Shenandoah valley, in a farm area; inc. 1812. There is light manufacturing and the town is the headquarters of Shenandoa...

(Encyclopedia) Harrisonburg, city (2020 pop. 51,814), seat of Rockingham co., NW Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; settled 1739, inc. 1916. It is a processing center in a...

(Encyclopedia) Macdonald, George, 1824–1905, Scottish author. Ordained a Congregational minister, he eventually abandoned his vocation to become a writer and freelance preacher. His first published works were seve...

(Encyclopedia) Stubbs, George, 1724–1806, English painter known for his studies of horses. Self-taught, Stubbs was interested in comparative anatomy and published his Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which is still ad...

(Encyclopedia) Wald, George, 1906–97, American biochemist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1932. He spent most of his career on the faculty at Harvard. In 1967 Wald, Haldan K. Hartline, and Ragnar Granit receive...

(Encyclopedia) Walker, George, 1618–90, Irish Anglican clergyman and commander. As joint governor of Londonderry (now Derry) during the siege (1689) of that city by the army of the deposed James II, Walker roused ...

(Encyclopedia) Sandys, George, 1578–1644, English poet and traveler, b. Yorkshire, son of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. He was educated at Oxford and in 1610 began an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East, which ...

(Encyclopedia) Handel, George Frideric hănˈdəl [key], 1685–1759, English composer, b. Halle, Germany. Handel was one of the greatest masters of baroque music, most widely celebrated for his majestic oratorio Me...