Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Evans, Frederick H., 1853–1943, English photographer. Evans retired from bookselling in 1898 when he began his photographic career. He became internationally famous for his exquisite platinotype ima...

(Encyclopedia) Noguchi, Isamu ēsäˈmo͞o nōgo͞oˈchē [key], 1904–88, American sculptor, b. Los Angeles. The son of a Japanese poet father and an American mother, he was a student of Gutzon Borglum and won Gug...

(Encyclopedia) Blatch, Harriet Stanton (Harriet Eaton Stanton Blatch), 1856–1940, American labor reformer and woman suffrage leader, b. Seneca Falls, N.Y. A daughter of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and abolit...

(Encyclopedia) Basket Makers, name given to the members of an early Native North American culture in the Southwest, predecessors of the Pueblo. Because of the cultural continuity from the Basket Makers to the Pueblo...

(Encyclopedia) altar, table or platform for the performance of religious sacrifice. In its simplest form the altar is a small pile, with a square or circular surface, made of stone or wood. Its features vary accordi...

(Encyclopedia) Orrery, Roger Boyle, 1st earl of, 1621–79, Irish statesman and writer; son of Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork. Created (1627) Baron Broghill, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, traveled abroad, ...

(Encyclopedia) Peterborough, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 155,050), E central England, on the Nene River. Designated as a new town in 1968, Peterborough is an engineering and rail hub and a farm trade cente...

(Encyclopedia) commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community simil...

(Encyclopedia) Cruikshank, George kro͝okˈshăngk [key], 1792–1878, English caricaturist, illustrator, and etcher; younger son of Isaac Cruikshank (1756–1810), caricaturist. Self-taught, George early gained a r...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Bessie, 1894–1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protégée of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest b...