Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) school vouchers, government grants aimed at improving education for the children of low-income families by providing school tuition that can be used at public or private schools. The idea behind schoo...

(Encyclopedia) Hay-Herrán Treaty hā-ĕränˈ [key], 1903, aborted agreement between the United States and Colombia providing for U.S. control of the prospective Panama Canal and for U.S. acquisition of a canal zon...

(Encyclopedia) Secretariat, United Nations: see United Nations. ...

(Encyclopedia) air pollution, contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are t...

(Encyclopedia) shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

(Encyclopedia) MacNeil, Hermon Atkins, 1866–1947, American sculptor, b. Chelsea, Mass., studied in Paris and in Rome. His first work of importance was for the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, but he is...

(Encyclopedia) Weymouth and Melcombe Regis wāˈməth, mĕlˈkəm rēˈjĭs [key], town (1991 pop. 38,384), Dorset, SW England, on Weymouth Bay. It is a port and a resort town with wide beaches. The port was active ...

(Encyclopedia) Duniway, Abigail Scott dŭnˈəwāˌ [key], 1834–1915, American editor and advocate of women's rights, b. near Groveland, Ill. She went to Oregon with her family in 1852 and the next year married Be...

(Encyclopedia) Tassie, James, 1735–99, Scottish gem engraver and modeler. At first a stonemason, he went to Dublin, where he assisted the gem engraver Dr. Henry Quin. With him Tassie invented an especially hard an...

(Encyclopedia) homelessness, the condition of not having a permanent place to live, widely perceived as a societal problem only beginning in the 1980s. Figures for the number of homeless people in the United States ...