Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Land, Edwin Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Land, Edwin Herbert, 1909–91, American inventor and photographic pioneer. While at Harvard, Land became interested in the properties and manipulation of polarized light. He left Harvard and, in 1932...

Holland Land Company

(Encyclopedia)Holland Land Company, Dutch enterprise active in the settlement of much of W New York and some of NW Pennsylvania. Organized by Dutch bankers in 1796, it secured lands in New York (known as the Hollan...

Nod, Land of

(Encyclopedia)Nod, Land of, [Heb.,=wandering], in the Bible, the traditional refuge of Cain somewhere E of Eden.

Nicholas II Land

(Encyclopedia)Nicholas II Land: see Severnaya Zemlya, Russia. ...

Marie Byrd Land

(Encyclopedia)Marie Byrd Land, area of W Antarctica, E of the Ross Shelf Ice and the Ross Sea and S of the Amundsen Sea; the Ford Ranges lie in the northwest part. The region was discovered and claimed for the Unit...

Cockaigne, Land of

(Encyclopedia)Cockaigne or Cockayne, Land of both: kŏkānˈ [key], legendary country described in medieval tales, where delicacies of food and drink were to be had for the taking. The Land of Cockaygne is a 13th-c...

Carey Land Act

(Encyclopedia)Carey Land Act, sponsored by Sen. Joseph M. Carey and passed by the U.S. Congress in 1894. The act provided for the transfer to Western states of U.S.-owned desert lands on the condition that they be ...

Yazoo land fraud

(Encyclopedia)Yazoo land fraud, name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislat...
 

Browse by Subject