Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gibault, Pierre pyĕr zhēbōˈ [key], 1737–1804, Roman Catholic missionary priest in America, patriot in the American Revolution, b. Montreal. He was sent (1768) to the Illinois country. When Kaska...

(Encyclopedia) Elohim ĕlōhēmˈ, ēlōˈhĭm, ĕlˈōhēm [key], term used to designate the God of Israel. The use of Elohim in Israel's religious texts is an attempt to treat the particular Hebrew God, Yahweh, in...

(Encyclopedia) Douglass, Frederick dŭgˈləs [key], c.1818–1895, American abolitionist, b. near Easton, Md. as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. The son of a black slave, Harriet Bailey, and a white father, m...

(Encyclopedia) Fornés, María Irene, 1930–2018, Cuban-American playwright and director; she emigrated from Cuba with her family after her father's death in 1945. An early experimental work, Promenade (1965), a mu...

(Encyclopedia) Wharton, Thomas Wharton, 1st marquess of, 1648–1715, English politician. Before his entry into Parliament (1673) he had acquired the reputation as a rake and gambler that he retained for life. After...

(Encyclopedia) liberty, term used to describe various types of individual freedom, such as religious liberty, political liberty, freedom of speech, right of self-defense, and others. It is also used as a general ter...

(Encyclopedia) Latrobe, John Hazlehurst Boneval, 1803–91, American philanthropist, b. Philadelphia; son of Benjamin H. Latrobe. He studied law, and from 1828 until his death he was regularly retained as counsel fo...

(Encyclopedia) Keltie, Sir John Scott, 1840–1927, Scottish geographer. He was inspector of geographical education for the Royal Geographic Society, librarian, and secretary of the society. In 1880 he became editor...

(Encyclopedia) National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., a division of the Smithsonian Institution. Devoted to the collection, presentation, and preservation of the culture of Africa...

(Encyclopedia) Damrosch, Leopold, 1832–85, German conductor. After taking a degree in medicine, he became (1857) first violinist in the ducal orchestra at Weimar, where he was a friend of Liszt and Wagner. In 1871...