Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gadsden Purchase gădzˈdən [key], strip of land purchased (1853) by the United States from Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) had described the U.S.-Mexico boundary vaguely, and Presiden...

(Encyclopedia) New Zealand spinach, succulent annual (Tetragonia expansa) of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and S South America, grown for the edible leaves. The plant grows prostrate, often spreading to cover sever...

(Encyclopedia) New York Bay, arm of the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Hudson River, SE N.Y. and NE N.J., enclosed by the shores of NE New Jersey, E Staten Island, S Manhattan, and W Long Island (Brooklyn) and o...

(Encyclopedia) New Hyde Park, village (1990 pop. 9,728), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island; inc. 1927. It is a residential community with some manufacturing and truck farms. Nearby is the uninc. town of North New ...

(Encyclopedia) New England Confederation, union for “mutual safety and welfare” formed in 1643 by representatives of the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. They met in Boston an...

(Encyclopedia) Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, self-sustaining public corporation established in 1921 by the states of New York and New Jersey to administer the activities of the New York–New Jersey por...

(Encyclopedia) New Testament, the distinctively Christian portion of the Bible, consisting of 27 books of varying lengths dating from the earliest Christian period. The seven epistles whose authorship by St. Paul is...

(Encyclopedia) Wallace, Lew (Lewis Wallace), 1827–1905, American novelist and diplomat, b. Brookville, Ind. He served in both the Mexican and Civil wars. After returning to his law practice in Indiana, he became g...

(Encyclopedia) Lamy, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ lämēˈ [key], 1814–88, Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S. Southwest, b. France. He was ordained in 1838 and, after doing missionary work in S Ohio, was sent...

(Encyclopedia) New York Philharmonic, dating from 1842, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States. The orchestra as it now exists is the result of the merger of the Philharmonic Society of New York with the...