Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Clapham Sect, group of English social reformers, active c.1790–1830, so named because their activities centered on the home in Clapham, London, of Henry Thornton and William Wilberforce. Most of the...

(Encyclopedia) Hopkins, Esek, 1718–1802, American Revolutionary naval hero, b. Scituate, R.I.; brother of Stephen Hopkins. He commanded a privateer in the French and Indian War, and in Dec., 1775, he was appointed...

(Encyclopedia) Arguedas, Alcides älsēˈᵺās ärgāˈᵺäs [key], 1879–1946, Bolivian writer and diplomat. His essays and novels, which have social and moralizing tendencies, are a reaction against the romanti...

(Encyclopedia) Volk, Leonard Wells, 1828–95, American sculptor, b. Wellstown (now Wells), N.Y. In 1848 he went to St. Louis, where he studied drawing and worked at funerary sculpture. With the aid of Stephen A. Do...

(Encyclopedia) Vác vīˈtsən [key], town (1991 est. pop. 33,858), N central Hungary, on the Danube River. A commercial center producing textiles, footwear, cement, and tools, it is also a favorite summer resort of...

(Encyclopedia) Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

(Encyclopedia) Bowen, Elizabeth bōˈĭn [key], 1899–1973, Anglo-Irish novelist, b. Dublin. In impeccable prose she treated love and frustration through studies of complex psychological relationships. Her novels i...

(Encyclopedia) Nauru näo͞oˈro͞o [key], officially Republic of Nauru, atoll and independent republic (2015 est. pop. 11,000), c.8 sq mi (20 sq km), central Pacific, just south of the equator and west of the Gilbe...

(Encyclopedia) Ladislaus IV, 1262–90, king of Hungary (1272–90), son and successor of Stephen V. Ladislaus became unpopular by favoring the Cumans, from whom he was descended through his mother. During his reign...

(Encyclopedia) Kearny, Lawrence kärˈnē [key], 1789–1868, American naval officer, b. Perth Amboy, N.J.; cousin of Stephen Watts Kearny. He became a midshipman in 1807, served in the War of 1812, and later saw ac...