Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?–1784, American poet, considered the first important black writer in the United States. Brought from Africa in 1761, she became a house slave for the Boston merchant John Whe...

(Encyclopedia) Jívaro hēˈvärō [key], linguistic stock of Native South Americans in Ecuador. The peoples, N of the Marañón River and E of the Andes, engage in farming, hunting, fishing, and weaving. They have ...

(Encyclopedia) Bernadotte, Count Folke fôlˈkə bĕrnädôtˈ, bûrˈnədŏt [key], 1895–1948, Swedish internationalist; nephew of King Gustavus V. He was active in the Swedish Red Cross and became its president ...

(Encyclopedia) Rapallo, Treaty of, 1922, agreement signed by Germany and the USSR at Rapallo, Italy. It was reached by Walter Rathenau and G. V. Chicherin independently of the Conference of Genoa (see Genoa, Confere...

(Encyclopedia) Grasse, town, Alpes-Maritime dept., SE France. Probably founded in Roman times, Grasse was a commercial center during the Middle Ages. Destroyed many ti...

(Encyclopedia) Walton, Sir William Turner, 1902–83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918–19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitw...

(Encyclopedia) linear programming, solution of a mathematical problem concerning maximum and minimum values of a first-degree (linear) algebraic expression, with variables subject to certain stated conditions (restr...

(Encyclopedia) Meyerhof, Otto ôˈtō mīˈərhōf [key], 1884–1951, American physiologist, b. Germany, M.D. Heidelberg, 1909. He was professor at the Univ. of Kiel (1912–24) and at the Univ. of Berlin and direc...

(Encyclopedia) Ivan VI, 1740–64, czar of Russia (1740–41), great-grandson of Ivan V. He was the son of Prince Anthony Ulric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and of Anna Leopoldovna. An infant, he succeeded his great-a...

(Encyclopedia) Cope, Edward Drinker, 1840–97, American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and at the Smithsonian Institution. His l...