Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Walras, Léon, 1834–1910, French economist. After abandoning his studies in mining engineering, he became a freelance journalist, advancing the causes of economic and social reform. He later became ...

(Encyclopedia) Trek, Great trĕk [key], the journey by Afrikaner farmers (Boers) who left the Cape Colony to escape British domination and eventually founded Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange Free State. Trek is an A...

(Encyclopedia) Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich gûrjēfˈ, –jĕfˈ [key], 1872–1949, Armenian spiritualist and author. After spending years traveling, Gurdjieff settled in Moscow (c.1913). He fled the Russian Revolu...

(Encyclopedia) Marcy, William Learned, 1786–1857, American politician, b. Southbridge, Mass. He settled in Troy, N.Y., where he practiced law and, after serving in the War of 1812, held local offices. A Democrat a...

(Encyclopedia) California State University System, coordinating agency established in 1960 by the merger of individual California state colleges, now consisting of 23 campuses. It constitutes one of the three Califo...

(Encyclopedia) Herndon, William Henry, 1818–91, friend, law partner, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, b. Greensburg, Ky. In 1844 he became the junior member of the Springfield, Ill., law firm of Lincoln and Hern...

(Encyclopedia) archons ärˈkŏnz, –kənz [key] [Gr.,=leaders], in ancient Athens and other Greek cities, officers of state. Originally in Athens there were three archons: the archon eponymos (so called because th...

(Encyclopedia) match, small stick whose chemically coated tip bursts into flame when struck on a rough surface. Before the introduction of the match, fire was made by friction methods using the stick and the groove,...

(Encyclopedia) Skou, Jens Christian, 1918–2018, Danish chemist, M.D. Univ. of Copenhagen, 1944, Ph.D. Univ. of Aarhus, 1954. Skou was on the faculty at the Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark, from 1947 until he retired in 1...

(Encyclopedia) Balenciaga, Cristóbal krĭstōˈbäl bälĕnthyäˈgä [key], 1895–1972, Spanish-born French fashion designer. He established houses of couture in Spain (1919–31) and Paris (1937–68) and quickl...