Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Fish, Stuyvesant stīˈvəsənt [key], 1851–1923, American railroad executive, b. New York City; son of Hamilton Fish (1808–93). He became (1877) a director of the Illinois Central RR, and as its ...

(Encyclopedia) Ames, Ezra, 1768–1836, American painter, b. Framingham, Mass. Early in his life he worked as a carriage painter, miniaturist, engraver, and decorator, first in Worcester, Mass., and later in Albany,...

(Encyclopedia) Coudert, Frederic René ko͞odârˈ [key], 1832–1903, American lawyer and public official, b. New York City. He practiced law in New York City and for many years was counsel in the United States for...

(Encyclopedia) Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of ...

(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) Black Hand, symbol and name for a criminal and terroristic secret society, and especially associated with the Mafia and the Camorra. The Black Hand flourished in Sicily in the late 19th cent., and in ...

(Encyclopedia) state of emergency, situation in which a government or a government body is empowered to act with enhanced powers in order to respond to a crisis. The enhanced or emergency powers, and in many cases i...

(Encyclopedia) State College, borough (1990 pop. 38,923), Centre co., central Pa., surrounded by farmland; settled 1859, inc. 1896. Manufacturing includes electronic products, foods, chemicals, and bottled water. Ag...

(Encyclopedia) United States, Great Seal of the, official impression that validates a United States government document. It was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1782 and, with only minor changes in the design,...

(Encyclopedia) Goldberg, Arthur, 1908–90, American labor lawyer and jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962–65), b. Chicago. He received his law degree from Northwestern Univ. in 1929. A corpor...