Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Washington, Martha

(Encyclopedia)Washington, Martha, 1731–1802, wife of George Washington, b. New Kent co., Va. The daughter of John Dandridge and Frances Jones Dandridge, she first married (1749) Daniel Parke Custis. She bore him ...

Dryden, John

(Encyclopedia)Dryden, John, 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659),...

Hooker, Sir William Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, Sir William Jackson, 1785–1865, English botanist. A leading authority of his time on ferns, he formed a famous herbarium and built up the Glasgow Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew....

Mountain Meadows

(Encyclopedia)Mountain Meadows, small valley in extreme SW Utah, where in 1857 a party of some 140 emigrants bound for California were massacred. It was a period when friction between Mormons and non-Mormons was ac...

Berners-Lee, Tim

(Encyclopedia)Berners-Lee, Tim (Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee), 1955–, British computer scientist, b. London, grad. The Queen's College, Oxford (B.A. 1976). He joined CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, as a consultan...

Seven Days battles

(Encyclopedia)Seven Days battles, in the American Civil War, the week-long Confederate counter-offensive (June 26–July 2, 1862) near Richmond, Va., that ended the Peninsular campaign. After the battle of Fair Oak...

Gettysburg campaign

(Encyclopedia)Gettysburg campaign, June–July, 1863, series of decisive battles of the U.S. Civil War. The Gettysburg battles included more than 160,000 soldiers and many camp laborers. These included thousands ...

Lee, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campai...

Stratford, estate, United States

(Encyclopedia)Stratford, home of the Lee family, overlooking the Potomac River, E Va., SE of Fredericksburg. A national shrine dedicated in 1935, the site was purchased in 1716 by Thomas Lee, who built the mansion ...

Dillard, James Hardy

(Encyclopedia)Dillard, James Hardy dĭlˈərd [key], 1856–1940, American educator, b. Nansemond co., Va., grad. Washington and Lee Univ., 1876. Professor (1891–1907) of Latin at Tulane, where he was also dean (...
 

Browse by Subject