Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bank of the United States, name for two national banks established by the U.S. Congress to serve as government fiscal agents and as depositories for federal funds; the first bank was in existence from...

(Encyclopedia) Lucullus (Lucius Licinius Lucullus Ponticus) lo͞okŭlˈəs [key], c.110 b.c.–56 b.c., Roman general. He served in the Social War under Sulla, who made him his favorite. He fought in the East (87 b....

(Encyclopedia) pike, common name for the family Esocidae, freshwater game and food fishes of Europe, Asia, and North America. The pike, the muskellunge, and the pickerel form a small but well-known group of long, th...

(Encyclopedia) chalk, mineral of calcium carbonate, similar in composition to limestone, but softer. It is characteristically a marine formation and sometimes occurs in great thickness; the chief constituents of the...

(Encyclopedia) Linear Scripts, forms of Minoan writing. The earliest Minoan writing consisted of pictographs, called Cretan hieroglyphs, which date from about 2000 b.c. The first linear script, Linear A, dates from ...

(Encyclopedia) Nadal, Rafael (Rafael Nadal Parera), 1986–, Spanish tennis player, b. Majorca. Widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player ever, “Rafa” turned professional at 15. In 2005 he won his first ...

(Encyclopedia) Abakanowicz, Magdalena, 1930–2017, Polish sculptor, studied Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw (1950–54). She won notice with her Abakan series, begun in 1967; these monumental woven abstract sculptures...

(Encyclopedia) ocher ōˈkər [key], mixture of varying proportions of iron oxide and clay, used as a pigment. It occurs naturally as yellow ocher (yellow or yellow-brown in color), the iron oxide being limonite, or...

(Encyclopedia) Ohr, George Edgar, 1857–1918, American ceramist, often considered the first art potter in the United States, b. Biloxi, Miss. He apprenticed in New Orleans, traveled to potteries in 16 states to obs...

(Encyclopedia) Catlett, Elizabeth, 1915–2012, American-Mexican sculptor, painter, and printmaker, considered one of the foremost African-American artists of her era, b. Washington, D.C., grad. Howard Univ. (B.A., ...