Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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davenport ... Davis Strait

davenport: in modern usage, a large upholstered settee, but in the 18th century a compact desk having deep drawers on the right side and dummy drawer fronts on the left side. The sloping top of the davenport concealed a fitted well, ...
Davenport: city, seat (1838) of Scott county, eastern Iowa, U.S. It lies on the north bank of the Mississippi River and is the largest of the Quad Cities, an urban complex that includes neighbouring Bettendorf to the east and Moline and ...
Davenport ware: cream-coloured earthenware made by John Davenport of Longport, Staffordshire, Eng., beginning in 1793. Davenport had great success with pierced openwork-rimmed plates, either painted or transfer printed. He produced domestic bone china from 1800 and by 1810 was operating on a ...
Davenport, Charles Benedict: American zoologist who contributed substantially to the study of eugenics (the improvement of populations through breeding) and heredity and who pioneered the use of statistical techniques in biological research.
Davenport, Edward Loomis: one of the most skilled and popular American actors of the mid-19th century. Three of his finest roles were Hamlet, Brutus in Julius Caesar, and Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger's comedy A New Way to Pay Old Debts.
Davenport, Fanny Lily Gypsy: American actress who saw considerable success, especially with her own company, on the 19th-century American stage.
Davenport, John: Puritan clergyman and cofounder of the New Haven Colony (now New Haven, Conn.).
Davenport, Thomas: American inventor of what was probably the first commercially successful electric motor, which he used with great ingenuity to power a number of established inventions.
Daventry: town and district, administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England. Daventry district's rich, undulating landscape is predominantly rural, with more than 70 parishes. At the heart of the district is historic Daventry town.
David: capital of Chiriqui provincia, western Panama, on the Rio David and surrounded by fruit groves. It is Panama's largest city outside of the Panama City metropolitan area and is an important commercial centre, served by the Pacific ...
David: second of the Israelite kings (after Saul), reigning c. 1000 to c. 962 BC, who established a united kingdom over all Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital. In Jewish tradition he became the ideal king, the founder of an enduring ...
David: marble sculpture executed from 1501 to 1504 by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. The statue was commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, but the Florentine government decided instead to place it in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The original is ...
David ap Gruffudd: the last native prince of Gwynedd in northern Wales; he initiated a major rebellion against the English in Wales, and upon his death Wales fell completely under English rule.
David Ap Llywelyn: Welsh prince, ruler of the state of Gwynedd in northern Wales from 1240 to 1246.
David d'Angers, Pierre-Jean: French sculptor, who revolted against the prevailing Neoclassical style of early 19th-century French sculpture.
David de Mayrena, Marie-Charles: eccentric French adventurer who became the self-styled king of the Sedang tribe of the northern Central Highlands in what is now southern Vietnam.
David I: one of the most powerful Scottish kings (reigned from 1124). He admitted into Scotland an Anglo-French (Norman) aristocracy that played a major part in the later history of the kingdom. He also reorganized Scottish Christianity to conform with continental European ...
David II: king of Scots from 1329, although he spent 18 years in exile or in prison. His reign was marked by costly intermittent warfare with England (a stage in the Scottish Wars of Independence), a decline in the prestige of the ...
David, Eduard Heinrich: a leader of the revisionist wing of the German Social Democratic Party and a minister in the early years of the Weimar Republic (1919-33).
David, Felicien-Cesar: composer whose music opened the door for the Oriental exoticism that characterized much French Romantic music.
David, Ferenc: Unitarian preacher, writer, and theologian influential in promoting religious toleration and the growth of anti-Trinitarian thought in Hungary.
David, Gerard: painter who was the last great master of the Bruges school.
David, Jacques-Louis: the most celebrated French artist of his day and a principal exponent of the late 18th-century Neoclassical reaction against the Rococo style.
David, Saint: patron saint of Wales.
David, Sir T W Edgeworth: geologist noted for his monumental study of the geology of Australia.
David, Star of: Jewish symbol composed of two overlaid equilateral triangles that form a six-pointed star. It appears on synagogues, Jewish tombstones, and the flag of the State of Israel. The symbol-which historically was not limited to use by Jews-originated in antiquity, when, ...
Davidescu, Nicolae: Romanian poet and novelist whose early poems, Inscriptii (1916), showed the influence of Charles Baudelaire. Among his prose works the novel Zana din fundul lacului (1912; "The Fairy at the Bottom of the Lake") was an exercise in symbolism, and ...
Davidovic, Ljubomir: twice prime minister (1919-20, 1924) of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia).
Davidson College: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Davidson, North Carolina, U.S. It is a liberal arts college with bachelor's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Junior-year students can study ...
Davidson, Bruce: American photographer and filmmaker whose emotionally charged images frequently convey the loneliness and isolation of the subjects portrayed.
Davidson, Donald: American philosopher known for his strikingly original and unusually systematic treatments of traditional problems in a number of fields.
Davidson, Donald: American poet, essayist, and teacher who warned against technology and idealized the agrarian, pre-Civil War American South.
Davidson, John: Scottish poet and playwright whose best work shows him a master of the narrative lyrical ballad.
Davidson, Randall Thomas Davidson, Baron: Anglican archbishop of Canterbury who was prominent as a speaker in parliamentary debates on moral and national questions during his 25-year tenure.
Davidson, Thomas: Scottish naturalist and paleontologist who became known as an authority on lamp shells, a phylum of bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates (Brachiopoda) whose fossils are among the oldest found.
Davie, Donald Alfred: British poet, literary critic, and teacher who was a major conservative influence on British poetry in the 1950s.
Davies, Arthur B.: American painter, printmaker, and tapestry designer known for his idylls of classical fantasy painted in a Romantic style but best remembered for his leadership in introducing modern European painting styles into early 20th-century America.
Davies, David Davies, 1st Baron: British promoter of the League of Nations, advocate of an international policing force to prevent war.
Davies, Emily: English pioneer in the movement to secure university education for women and chief founder of Girton College, Cambridge. She was responsible for University College, London, admitting women to classes in 1870 for the first time.
Davies, John: English poet and writing master whose chief work was Microcosmos (1603), a didactic religious treatise.
Davies, Marion: American actor, renowned more for her 34-year relationship with publishing giant William Randolph Hearst than for her performance career.
Davies, Peter Maxwell: English composer, conductor, and teacher whose powerfully innovative music made him the most influential British composer since Benjamin Britten.
Davies, Robertson: novelist and playwright whose works offer penetrating observations on Canadian provincialism and prudery.
Davies, Samuel: Presbyterian preacher in colonial British America who defended religious dissent and helped lead the Southern phase of the religious revival known as the Great Awakening.
Davies, Sir John: English poet and lawyer whose Orchestra, or a Poem of Dancing reveals a typically Elizabethan pleasure in the contemplation of the correspondence between the natural order and human activity.
Davies, William Henry: English poet whose lyrics have a force and simplicity uncharacteristic of the poetry of most of his Georgian contemporaries.
Davila, Arrigo Caterino: Italian historian who was the author of a widely read history of the Wars of Religion in France.
Davis: city, Yolo county, central California, U.S. It lies in the Sacramento River valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of Sacramento. The city, founded in 1868, was named Davisville for Jerome C. Davis, who owned a stock farm on the site. ...
Davis Cup: trophy awarded to the winner of an annual international lawn-tennis tournament originally for amateur men's teams. The official name is the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy. The trophy was donated in 1900 by American Dwight F. Davis for a competition ...
Davis Mountains: segment of the southern Rocky Mountains, mainly in Jeff Davis county, western Texas, U.S., extending northward for 45 miles (72 km) above the town of Marfa. Locally called the Texas Alps, the range has many peaks that exceed 7,000 feet ...
Davis Strait: bay of the northern Atlantic Ocean, lying between southeastern Baffin Island (Canada) and southwestern Greenland. It separates the depths of Baffin Bay (north) from those of the Labrador Sea (south) and forms part of the Northwest Passage, a route through ...