Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Jones, Mother: see Jones, Mary Harris. ...

(Encyclopedia) Great Mother Goddess, in ancient Middle Eastern religions, mother goddess, the great symbol of the earth's fertility. She was worshiped under many names and attributes. Similar figures have been known...

(Encyclopedia) Shipton, Mother, legendary English prophetess. She was first mentioned in an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1641, which described her as having prophesied various events of the reign of Henry VIII a...

(Encyclopedia) Mother Carey's chicken: see petrel. ...

(Encyclopedia) Richmond and Lennox, Frances Teresa Stuart or Stewart, duchess of, 1647–1702, mistress of Charles II of England. The daughter of an exiled Scottish physician, she was educated in France and returned...

(Encyclopedia) Husain, M. F. (Maqbool Fida Husain), 1915–2011, Indian painter. Often called the Picasso of India, he is known for brightly colored modernist paintings of mythical and religious figures. Although a ...

(Encyclopedia) Williams, Shirley Vivien Teresa Brittain, Baroness Williams of Crosby 1930–, British politician. Daughter of the political scientist and philosopher Sir George Catlin and the novelist Vera Brittain,...

(Encyclopedia) mother-of-pearl or nacre nāˈkər [key], the iridescent substance that forms the lining of the shells of some fresh-water and some salt-water mollusks. Like the pearl it is a secretion of the mantle,...

(Encyclopedia) Alfonso I, 1109?–1185, first king of Portugal, son of Henry of Burgundy. After his father's death (1112), his mother, Countess Teresa, ruled the county of Portugal with the help of her Spanish lover...

(Encyclopedia) Hitchens, Christopher Eric, 1949–2011, Anglo-American journalist and critic, b. Portsmouth, England, grad. Bailliol College, Oxford (1970). He wrote for the New Statesman, London Times, Daily Expres...