Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Muskogee mŭskōˈgē [key], city (1990 pop. 37,708), seat of Muskogee co., E Okla., near the junction of the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand rivers; inc. 1898. It is an important transportation, trade...

(Encyclopedia) Great Victoria Desert, Australia's largest desert, c. 163,900 sq mi (424,400 sq km), South Australia and Western Australia states. Forming the southern belt of the Western Australia desert, it lies S ...

(Encyclopedia) Great Sandy Desert, Australia's second-largest desert, c.110,000 sq mi (284,900 sq km), Western Australia and Northern Territory. Lying between the Tanami Desert (NE) and the Gibson Desert (S), it is ...

(Encyclopedia) Donner, Richard, 1930-2021, American film director, b. Bronx, N.Y., as Richard Donald Schwartzberg. Donner came from a Russian, Jewish immigrant family....

(Encyclopedia) Boece or Boethius, Hector bōēsˈ, bois, bōēˈthēəs [key], 1465?–1536?, Scottish historian. He studied at the Univ. of Paris, where he knew Erasmus, and in 1498 he went to Aberdeen as the first...

(Encyclopedia) McPherson, James Birdseye, 1828–64, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Sandusky co., Ohio. After teaching (1853–54) at West Point, he worked on various engineering projects. In the Civil ...

(Encyclopedia) McClernand, John Alexander, 1812–1900, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Breckinridge co., Ky. He was admitted (1832) to the Illinois bar and sat as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Represe...

(Encyclopedia) Chickasaw chĭkˈəsô [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They occupied N Mississippi an...

(Encyclopedia) Paul, Les, 1915–2009, American guitarist and inventor, b. Waukesha, Wis., as Lester William Polsfuss (later Polfuss). He began playing country music a...

(Encyclopedia) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, established in 1805, incorporated in 1806. It is supported by private endowment. The academy grew out of a proposal by Charles Willson Peale for an...