Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rand Corporation, research institution in Santa Monica, Calif.; founded 1948 and supported by federal, state, and local governments, as well as by foundations and corporations. Its principal fields of...

(Encyclopedia) Texas Woman's University, main campus at Denton; state supported; primarily for women; est. 1901. It is the largest state-supported university for women in the country. There are schools of arts and s...

(Encyclopedia) Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de də frāsēnāˈ [key], 1779–1842, French marine officer. He was assigned (1800) to a French exploring expedition in Australian waters; after his return to Pari...

(Encyclopedia) Eastern Michigan University, mainly at Ypsilanti, Mich.; coeducational; founded 1849 as a normal school, became Eastern Michigan College in 1956, gained university status in 1959. In 1964 a college of...

(Encyclopedia) Harris, William Torrey, 1835–1909, American educator and philosopher, b. Windham co., Conn., educated at Yale. He was superintendent (1868–80) of the St. Louis public school system and was U.S. co...

(Encyclopedia) Flexner, Abraham, 1866–1959, American educator, b. Louisville, Ky., grad. Johns Hopkins, 1886. After 19 years as a secondary school teacher and principal, he took graduate work at Harvard and at the...

(Encyclopedia) reed, name used for several plants of the family Graminae (grass family). The common American reed, also called reedgrass and canegrass, is a tall perennial grass (Phragmites australis), widely distri...

(Encyclopedia) Rai'atea räˌyätāˈä [key], volcanic island, 92 sq mi (238 sq km), South Pacific, largest and most important of the Leeward group of the Society Islands, French Polynesia. The island is mountainou...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, Pete (Peter Barton Wilson), 1933–, American politician, b. Lake Forest, Ill. A lawyer and moderate Republican, he began his career in local politics. He was a campaign aide in Richard Nixon'...

(Encyclopedia) lock, canal, stretch of water enclosed by gates, one at each end, built into a canal or river for the purpose of raising or lowering a vessel from one water level to another. A lock may also be built ...