Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Janszoon, Willem vĭˈləm yänˈsōn [key] fl. late 16th–early 17th cent., Dutch navigator and colonial governor; his name also appears was Jansz or Janssen. Janszoon served (1603–11, 1612–16, ...

(Encyclopedia) Kieft, Willem vĭlˈəm kēft [key], 1597–1647, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. Arriving in New Amsterdam in 1638 to succeed Wouter Van Twiller, Kieft immediately assumed absolute control....

(Encyclopedia) Barentz or Barents, Willem both: vĭˈləm bäˈrənts [key], d. 1597, Dutch navigator. He made three voyages (1594, 1595, 1596–97) in search of the Northeast Passage to Asia. He reached Novaya Zeml...

(Encyclopedia) Black Mountain College, former coeducational liberal arts college at Black Mountain, N.C., near Asheville. Founded (1933) by John Rice, also the school's first rector (1933–40), on the progressive e...

(Encyclopedia) Tworkov, Jack, 1900–82, American painter, b. Bela, Russia (now Biała, Poland). His family immigrated to the United States in 1913 and settled in New York. He studied at Columbia (B.A., 1923) and la...

(Encyclopedia) Heda, Willem Claasz vĭlˈəm kläs hāˈdä [key], 1594–c.1678, Dutch still-life painter. His excellent studies of tables laden with food, called ontbijt [breakfast piece] still life, are seen in m...

(Encyclopedia) Mitchell, Joan, 1926–92, American abstract painter, b. Chicago, studied Smith College, Art Institute of Chicago (B.F.A., 1947; M.F.A., 1950). A vibrant colorist, she was one of the finest painters o...

(Encyclopedia) Botha, Pieter Willem pēˈtər vĭlˈəm bōˈtə [key], 1916–2006, South African political leader. An Afrikaner and a member of the right-wing National party, he first entered parliament in 1948. B...

(Encyclopedia) Mesdag, Hendrik Willem hĕnˈdrĭk vĭlˈəm mĕsˈdäkh [key], 1831–1915, Dutch marine painter. He gave up banking at 35 to study painting. He later lived at The Hague and was known as a painter an...

(Encyclopedia) Blaeu, Willem Janszoon vĭˈləm yänˈsōn blou [key], 1571–1638, Dutch cartographer and printer. He studied astronomy and instrument making under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The printing es...