Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Blatch, Harriet Stanton (Harriet Eaton Stanton Blatch), 1856–1940, American labor reformer and woman suffrage leader, b. Seneca Falls, N.Y. A daughter of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and abolit...

(Encyclopedia) Caldecott, Randolph kôlˈdəkət [key], 1846–86, one of the most popular late 19th-century English book illustrators. Born in Chester, he moved (1872) to London, where he began publishing illustrat...

(Encyclopedia) Feldman, Morton, 1926–87, American modernist composer, b. New York City. An associate of John Cage and other experimental composers, Feldman was part of the so-called New York school. He was also a ...

(Encyclopedia) stethoscope stĕthˈəskōpˌ [key] [Gr.,=chest viewer], instrument that enables the physican to hear the sounds made by the heart, the lungs, and various other organs. The earliest stethoscope, devis...

(Encyclopedia) Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Coc...

(Encyclopedia) Utzon, Jørn, 1918–2008, Danish architect, grad. Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen (1942). He worked for Eric Gunnar Asplund in Sweden and Alvar Aalto in Finland before opening (1950) his own C...

(Encyclopedia) Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761, English novelist, b. Derbyshire. When he was 50 and a prosperous printer, Richardson was asked to compose a guide to letter writing. The idea of introducing a central ...

(Encyclopedia) robotics, science and technology of general purpose, programmable machine systems. Contrary to the popular fiction image of robots as ambulatory machines of human appearance capable of performing almo...

(Encyclopedia) Buck, Pearl Sydenstricker sīˈdənstrĭkˌər [key], 1892–1973, American author, b. Hillsboro, W.Va., grad. Randolph-Macon Women's College, 1914, the first American woman to receive (1938) the Nobe...

(Encyclopedia) guitar, musical instrument related to the lute, modern guitars normally having six strings that are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick. Earlier versions had pairs of strings like the lut...