Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lawrence, Jacob (Jacob Armstead Lawrence), 1917–2000, American painter, b. Atlantic City, N.J. One of the most important African-American artists of the late 20th cent., Lawrence focused on social a...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Scottish bagpipe bagpipe, musical instrument whose ancient origin was probably in Mesopotamia from which it was carried east and west by Celtic migrations. It was used in ancient Greece and Ro...

(Encyclopedia) bioethics, in philosophy, a branch of ethics concerned with issues surrounding health care and the biological sciences. These issues include the morality of abortion, euthanasia, in vitro fertilizatio...

(Encyclopedia) Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) kətŭlˈəs [key], 84? b.c.–54? b.c., Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 b.c. to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sist...

(Encyclopedia) Aldington, Richard ôlˈdĭngtən [key], 1892–1962, English poet and novelist. While studying at the Univ. of London, he became acquainted with Ezra Pound and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), whom he marrie...

(Encyclopedia) Ringling Brothers, seven brothers, sons of German-born August Rüngeling, who established an American circus empire. Albert C. (1852–1916), Otto (1858–1911), Alfred T. (1861–1919), Charles Edwar...

(Encyclopedia) Brownson, Orestes Augustus ôrĕsˈtēz, brounˈsən [key], 1803–76, American author and clergyman, b. Stockbridge, Vt. Largely self-taught, he became a vigorous and influential writer on social and...

(Encyclopedia) atomic weight, mean (weighted average) of the masses of all the naturally occurring isotopes of a chemical element, as contrasted with atomic mass, which is the mass of any individual isotope. Althoug...

(Encyclopedia) Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of, 1593–1641, English statesman. Regularly elected to Parliament from 1614 on, he became one of the critics of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and of ...

(Encyclopedia) Ives, Charles īvz [key], 1874–1954, American composer and organist, b. Danbury, Conn., grad. Yale, 1898; pupil of Dudley Buck and Horatio Parker. He was an organist (1893–1904) in churches in Con...