Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Jackson, Andrew, 1767–1845, 7th President of the United States (1829–37), b. Waxhaw settlement on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina (both states claim him). The greatest popula...

(Encyclopedia) Oglethorpe, James Edward ōˈgəlthôrp [key], 1696–1785, English general and philanthropist, founder of the American colony of Georgia. He had some military experience before being elected (1722) t...

(Encyclopedia) alligator, large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species—a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alliga...

(Encyclopedia) Wolfe, Thomas Clayton, 1900–1938, American novelist, b. Asheville, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1920, M.A. Harvard, 1922. An important 20th-century American novelist, Wolfe wrote four mammot...

(Encyclopedia) Shelby, Isaac, 1750–1826, American frontiersman, b. Washington co. (then part of Frederick co.), Md. Around 1773 he settled in the Holston River country in what is now E Tennessee. In the American R...

(Encyclopedia) Dole, Elizabeth Hanford, 1936–, American public official, b. Salisbury, N.C., B.A., Duke, 1958, J.D., Harvard, 1965; wife of Bob Dole. A Republican, she held several government positions including c...

(Encyclopedia) Hamm, Mia mēˈə [key] (Mariel Margaret Hamm), 1972–, U.S. soccer player, b. Selma, Ala. The best all-around women's soccer player of her generation, she was perhaps most responsible for making wom...

(Encyclopedia) wren, small, plump perching songbird of the family Troglodytidae. There are about 60 wren species, and all except one are restricted to the New World. The plumage is usually brown or reddish above and...

(Encyclopedia) Venus's-flytrap, insectivorous or carnivorous bog plant (Dionaea muscipula) native to the Carolina savannas and now widely cultivated as a novelty. The leaves, borne in a low rosette, resemble bear tr...