Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) performance art, multimedia art form originating in the 1970s in which performance is the dominant mode of expression. Perfomance art may incorporate such elements as instrumental or electronic music,...

(Encyclopedia) Monroe, Bill (William Smith Monroe), 1911–96, country singer, musician, and songwriter, often called the “father of bluegrass,” b. Rosine, Ky. A m...

(Encyclopedia) smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been ...

(Encyclopedia) balance of trade, relation between the merchandise exports and imports of a country. The concept first became important in the 16th and 17th cent. with the growth of mercantilism. Mercantilist theoris...

(Encyclopedia) Triangle Waist Company, often called the Triangle Shirtwaist Co., manufacturers of women's cotton and linen blouses. Located in lower Manhattan in the early 20th cent., on Mar. 25, 1911 it was the sit...

(Encyclopedia) Rainey, Gertrude "Ma," 1886–1939, African-American blues singer and songwriter, b. Columbus, Ga., as Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett. Rainey's place and...

(Encyclopedia) Canadian literature, English, literary works produced in Canada and written in the English language. The essayist Northrop Frye is noted for his systematic classification of literature, presented in...

(Encyclopedia) LeHand, Missy (Marguerite Alice LeHand), 1896–1944, personal secretary to Franklin Roosevelt, b. Potsdam, N.Y. She worked for Roosevelt's unsuccessful vice presidential campaign (1920) before she be...

(Encyclopedia) Murray, Gilbert (George Gilbert Aimé Murray), 1866–1957, British classical scholar, b. Sydney, Australia. In 1908 Murray was appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford. He is best known as a Gre...

(Encyclopedia) Babbitt, Natalie, 1932–2016, American children's book author and illustrator, b. Dayton, Ohio, as Natalie Zane Moore, grad. Smith College, 1954. She illustrated The Forty-Ninth Magician (1966), writ...