Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Peterson, Martha, 1916–2006, American educator, b. Jamestown, Kans., grad. Univ. of Kansas (A.B., 1937; Ph.D., 1959). She served as instructor in mathematics, assistant dean of women, and dean of wo...

(Encyclopedia) Peterson, Roger Tory, 1908–96, American ornithologist, writer, and illustrator, b. Jamestown, N.Y. He became famous with his best-selling pocket-sized Field Guide to the Birds (1934) and is known fo...

(Encyclopedia) Homeland Security, United States Department of (DHS), executive department of the federal government charged with protecting the security of the American homeland as its main responsibility. Its prima...

(Encyclopedia) Connecticut, longest river in New England, 407 mi (655 km) long, rising in the Connecticut Lakes, N N.H., near the Quebec border, and flowing S along the Vt.-N.H. line, then across Mass. and Conn. to ...

(Encyclopedia) Rust Belt or Rustbelt, economic region in the NE quadrant of the United States, focused on the Midwestern (see Midwest) states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as Pennsylvania. The te...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Supreme Court, United States, highest court of the United States, established by Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States. With the emergence of a working conservative majority,...

(Encyclopedia) State, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government responsible, under the President's direction, for the making and execution of American foreign policy. Before and ...

(Encyclopedia) Bacon's Rebellion, popular revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon. High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against special privileges given those close to the governor,...

(Encyclopedia) Pocahontas pōkəhŏnˈtəs [key], c.1595–1617, Native North American woman, daughter of Chief Powhatan. Pocahontas, meaning “playful one” (her birth name was Amonute, and her family called her ...

(Encyclopedia) Snake, river, 1,038 mi (1,670 km) long, NW United States, the chief tributary of the Columbia; once called the Lewis River. The Snake rises in NW Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park, flows through J...