Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Alsop, Marin ôlˈsəp [key], 1956–, American conductor, b. New York City. The daughter of professional musicians, she began playing the piano at two and the violin at five. Alsop started conducting...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Norway, Nor. Norge, officially Kingdom of Norway, constitutional monarchy (2015 est. pop. 5,200,000), 125,181 sq mi (324,219 sq km), N Europe, occupying the western part of the Scandinavian pen...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Mimicry in butterflies mimicry, in biology, the advantageous resemblance of one species to another, often unrelated, species or to a feature of its own environment. (When the latter results fr...

(Encyclopedia) lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to ref...

(Encyclopedia) Leacock, Richard, 1921–2011, Anglo-American filmmaker, b. London. A key figure in the development of cinéma vérité, he also helped create the camera and sound equipment that made the style possib...

(Encyclopedia)  National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., established in 1987. Washington-area philanthropist and art collector Wilhelmina Cole Holl...

(Encyclopedia) Marcantonio, Vito vēˈtō märkăntōˈnēō [key], 1902–54, American politician, b. New York City. After the age of 18 he was active in community affairs in the Harlem section of New York City. He...

(Encyclopedia) Burney, Fanny, later Madame D'Arblay därblāˈ [key], 1752–1840, English novelist, daughter of Charles Burney, the composer, organist, and music scholar. Although she received no formal education, ...

(Encyclopedia) Darwin, Charles Robert, 1809–82, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood. He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism. He st...

(Encyclopedia) lie detector, instrument designed to record bodily changes resulting from the telling of a lie. Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 191...