Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Barber, John Warner, 1798–1885, American engraver, b. East Windsor, Conn. He opened (1823) a business in New Haven, where he produced religious and historical books, illustrated with his own wood an...

(Encyclopedia) Bartram, John bärˈtrəm [key], 1699–1777, pioneer American botanist, b. near Darby, Pa. He had no formal schooling but possessed a keen mind and a great interest in plants. In 1728 he purchased la...

(Encyclopedia) New York, State University of, est. 1948 by the amalgamation under one board of trustees of 29 state-supported institutions. It now comprises all state-supported institutions of higher education, with...

(Encyclopedia) Antipodes ăntĭpˈədēz [key], rocky uninhabited islands, 24 sq mi (62 sq km), South Pacific, c.550 mi (885 km) SE of New Zealand, to which they belong. Explored by British seamen in 1800, the Antip...

(Encyclopedia) Tombstone, city (1990 pop. 1,220), Cochise co., SE Ariz.; inc. 1881. With its pleasant climate and legendary past, Tombstone is a well-known tourist attraction. The city became a national historic lan...

(Encyclopedia) Tropic of Capricorn, parallel of latitude at 23°30′ south of the equator; it is the southern boundary of the tropics. This parallel marks the farthest point south at which the sun can be seen direc...

(Encyclopedia) ephemeris time (ET), astronomical time defined by the orbital motions of the earth, moon, and planets. The earth does not rotate with uniform speed, so the solar day is an imprecise unit of time. Ephe...

(Encyclopedia) Gardiner, Lion, 1599–1663, English colonist in America. Under contract with patentees of Connecticut, Gardiner designed and erected (1635–36) the blockhouse at Saybrook, which he defended in the P...

(Encyclopedia) New Mexico, University of, main campus at Albuquerque; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1889, opened 1892. It maintains graduate centers at Los Alamos and Santa Fe and conducts joint research...

(Encyclopedia) Farrakhan, Louis fârˈəkănˌ, färˈəkänˌ [key], 1933–, African-American religious leader, b. New York City, as Louis Eugene Walcott. A former calypso singer known as “The Charmer,” he joi...