Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) popular sovereignty, in U.S. history, doctrine under which the status of slavery in the territories was to be determined by the settlers themselves. Although the doctrine won wide support as a means o...

(Encyclopedia) Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explor...

(Encyclopedia) Great Falls, city (2020 pop. 60,442), seat of Cascade co., N central Mont., second largest city in the state, at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun ...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Philip Cortelyou, 1906–2005, American architect, museum curator, and historian, b. Cleveland, grad. Harvard Univ. (B.A., 1927). One of the first Americans to study modern European architect...

(Encyclopedia) Hebrides, the hĕbˈrĭdēz [key], Western Isles, or Western Islands, group of more than 50 islands, W and NW Scotland. Less than a fifth of the islands are inhabited. The Outer Hebrides (sometimes al...

(Encyclopedia) object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditi...

(Encyclopedia) McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham məgläkˈlĭn [key], 1861–1947, American educator and historian, b. Beardstown, Ill., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1882; LL.B., 1885). He taught history at the Univ....

(Encyclopedia) Natchez Trace, road, from Natchez, Miss., to Nashville, Tenn., of great commercial and military importance from the 1780s to the 1830s. It grew from a series of Native American trails used in the 18th...

(Encyclopedia) Maury, Matthew Fontaine fŏntānˈ môrˈē [key], 1806–73, American hydrographer and naval officer, b. near Fredericksburg, Va. Appointed a midshipman in 1825, he saw varied sea duty until a stagec...

(Encyclopedia) Dunlap, William dŭnˈlăp [key], 1766–1839, American dramatist and theatrical manager, b. Perth Amboy, N.J. Inspired by the success of The Contrast by Royall Tyler, he began to write plays for the ...