Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ross, Sir George William, 1841–1914, Canadian political leader, b. Ontario. He sat (1872–83) in the House of Commons and then entered the Ontario government as minister of education. He was Libera...

(Encyclopedia) herbal, early botanical book containing descriptions and illustrations of herbs and plants with their properties, chiefly those qualities that made them useful as medicines or condiments. Most of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Petty, Sir William, 1623–87, English statistician and physician. He was a founder of the Royal Society and was physician general to the army of Ireland in 1652. Petty's survey of the Irish estates a...

(Encyclopedia) Downing, Sir George, 1623–84, English diplomat. A nephew of Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts, he was educated at Harvard. He returned (1646) to England, joined the parliamentarians, and was appoi...

(Encyclopedia) Francis, Sir Philip, 1740–1818, British statesman and pamphleteer. He may have been the author known as Junius. He held several minor posts in government offices before being appointed to the counci...

(Encyclopedia) Kidman, Sir Sidney,1857–1935, Australian stockman, b. near Adelaide. He worked as a stockman and a drover in the outback of New South Wales before he began a business carting supplies to miners duri...

(Encyclopedia) Richardson, Sir Ralph, 1902–83, English stage and film actor. Since his first professional stage appearance in The Merchant of Venice (1921), Richardson has played a variety of classic and modern ro...

(Encyclopedia) Robertson, Sir Dennis, 1890–1963, British economist, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge. A professor at Cambridge (1944–57), he also handled Anglo-American financial relationships during World War I...

(Encyclopedia) Ryle, Sir Martin, 1918–84, British radio astronomer, B.S. Oxford, 1939. Ryle was a researcher and professor at Cambridge from 1945 until his retirement in 1982. Knighted in 1966, he was Britain's As...

(Encyclopedia) Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 1769–1830, English portrait painter, b. Bristol. He began to draw when very young and developed extraordinary talents as a draftsman; though he studied briefly at the Royal Aca...