Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Leakey, Mary Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Leakey, Mary Douglas, 1913–96, British archaeologist, b. London as Mary Douglas Nicol; wife of Louis Leakey and mother of Richard Leakey. She had little formal education, but a fascination with arch...

Clydebank

(Encyclopedia)Clydebank, town, West Dunbartonshire, W central Scotland, on the north bank of the Clyde River. The chief industry until the 1970s was shipbuilding. The...

Bridges, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bridges, Charles, fl. 1683–1740, English portrait painter, active (c.1735–c.1740) in Virginia. He was the most skillful practitioner of aristocratic portrait painting in the South. Among the works...

Elizabeth I, queen of England

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth I, 1533–1603, queen of England (1558–1603). After the Armada, Elizabeth's popularity began to wane. Parliament became less tractable and began to object to the abuse of royally grante...

Stuart, British royal family

(Encyclopedia)Stuart or Stewart, royal family that ruled Scotland and England. The Stuart lineage began in a family of hereditary stewards of Scotland, the earliest of whom was Walter (d. 1177), grandson of a Norma...

Fotheringhay

(Encyclopedia)Fotheringhay fŏᵺˈərĭng-gā [key], village, Northamptonshire, central England, on the Nene River. Fotheringhay Castle (12th cent.), now in ruins, was the birthplace of Richard III and the scene o...

Menteith

(Encyclopedia)Menteith mĕntēthˈ [key], lake, up to 1.5 mi (2.4 km) across, Stirling, central Scotland, near the town of Stirling. Mary Queen of Scots, as a child of five, was hidden at Inchmahome priory on the l...

Danby, Thomas Osborne, earl of

(Encyclopedia)Danby, Thomas Osborne, earl of, 1631–1712, English statesman. Under the patronage of the 2d duke of Buckingham, he was appointed treasurer of the navy (1668), a privy councilor (1672), and lord trea...

John the Baptist, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John the Baptist, Saint, d. c.a.d. 28–a.d. 30, Jewish prophet, considered by Christians to be the forerunner of Jesus. He was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, who was also a kinswoman of Mary, th...
 

Browse by Subject