Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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National Museum of Western Art ... Natsume Soseki

National Museum of Western Art: Japanese national collection of European art, located in Ueno Park, Tokyo. The museum building, designed by Le Corbusier, was opened in 1959, and an annex by Maekawa Kunio was added in 1979.
National Organization for Women: American activist organization (founded 1966) that promotes equal rights for women.
National Palace Museum: major art museum in the Republic of China, at Taipei, that preserves many of the art holdings of the Chinese imperial collection. The museum houses about 240,000 art objects and documents that were formerly held at Peking.
national park: an area set aside by a national government for the preservation of the natural environment. A national park may be set aside for purposes of public recreation and enjoyment or because of its historical or scientific interest. Most of the ...
National Party: an Australian political party that for most of its history has held office as a result of its customary alliance with the Liberal Party of Australia (q.v.). It often acted as a margin in the balance of power, but its ...
National Portrait Gallery: museum in London that houses the national collection of portraits of British men and women. It is located adjacent to the National Gallery, north of Trafalgar Square, in Westminster.
National Postal Museum: philatelic museum and research centre in the City of London. It is located in a section of London's General Post Office, next to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The museum opened in 1966, largely through the efforts of Reginald M. Phillips, who ...
National Primitive Baptist Convention, Inc.: association of independent black Baptist churches in the United States that were joined in a national convention in 1907. The convention developed from black congregations formed after the American Civil War by emancipated slaves who had previously attended Primitive Baptist ...
National Public Radio: the public radio network of the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., NPR offers a broad range of high-quality news and cultural programming to local public radio stations.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory: the national radio observatory of the United States. It is funded by the National Science Foundation and is managed by Associated Universities, Inc., a consortium of nine leading private universities. Its headquarters are in Charlottesville, Va.
National Recovery Administration: U.S. government agency established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes during the Great Depression. The NRA was an essential element in the National Industrial Recovery Act (June 1933), which authorized the president to institute ...
National Republican Party: U.S. political party formed after what had been the Republican (or Jeffersonian Republican) party split in 1825. The Jeffersonian Republicans had been the only national political party following the demise of the Federalists during the War of 1812. During the ...
National Review: biweekly magazine of news and opinion published in New York City, and the leading conservative journal in the United States. It was founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley, Jr.
National Revolutionary Party: Mexico's major political party from 1929 to 1938, when it changed its name to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (q.v.).
National Rifle Association of America: governing organization for the sport of shooting with rifles and pistols, formed in the United States in 1871. By the early 1990s it claimed a membership of about 3 million target shooters, hunters, gun collectors, gunsmiths, police, and others interested ...
National Roman Museum: in Rome, one of the world's greatest museums of ancient Greco-Roman art, founded in 1889 and housed in a monastery restored by Michelangelo on the site of the baths of Diocletian. The museum is also known as the Terme Museum ...
National Science Foundation: an independent agency of the U.S. government that supports basic research and education in a wide range of sciences and in mathematics and engineering. It was inspired by advances in science and technology that occurred as a result of World ...
National Science Museum: museum in Tokyo, founded in 1872, concerned with the history of the physical sciences, natural history, and technology. The collections include models of Japanese flora in wax and other materials, engineering and scientific apparatus, and machines of historical interest.
national seashore: in the United States, any of a number of coastal areas reserved by the federal government for recreational use by the public. Cape Hatteras in North Carolina was established as the first national seashore in 1953. Others have since been ...
National Security Agency: U.S. intelligence agency within the Department of Defense that is responsible for cryptographic and communications intelligence and security. The NSA grew out of the communications intelligence activities of U.S. military units during World War II. The NSA was established in ...
National Security Council: U.S. agency within the Executive Office of the President, established by the National Security Act in 1947 to advise the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies related to national security. The president of the United States is chairman of ...
National Socialism: totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of the Nazi Party in Germany. In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and dictatorial rule, National Socialism shared many elements with Italian fascism. However, Nazism was far more extreme both in its ...
National Steel Corporation: U.S. iron- and steel-making company that in 1983 became a subsidiary of National Intergroup, Inc. (q.v.).
National Symphony Orchestra: American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1931 by Hans Kindler, who served as its first music director (1931-49). Subsequent directors have been Howard Mitchell (1949-69), Antal Dorati (1970-77), Mstislav Rostropovich (1977-94), and Leonard Slatkin (music ...
National Trust: British organization founded in 1895 and incorporated by the National Trust Act (1907) for the purpose of promoting the preservation of-and public access to-buildings of historic or architectural interest and land of natural beauty. (The powers and privileges of the ...
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola: Angolan political party that was originally founded to free the nation from Portuguese colonial rule.
National University of Ireland: state-supported institution in Dublin, composed of three constituent and five recognized colleges, established in 1908 to foster Irish culture and values.
National Urban League: American service agency founded for the purpose of eliminating racial segregation and discrimination and helping African Americans and other minorities to participate in all phases of American life. By the late 20th century more than 110 local affiliated groups were ...
National Westminster Bank: former British bank holding company with branches and subbranches in the United Kingdom and operations across the world. It was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2000.
National Woman Suffrage Association: American organization, founded in 1869 and based in New York City, that was created by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton when the women's rights movement split into two groups over the issue of suffrage for African American men. ...
National Woman's Party: American political party that in the early part of the 20th century employed militant methods to fight for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
National Women's Hall of Fame: not-for-profit educational institution founded in 1969 to honour the accomplishments of outstanding American women. The Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first Women's Rights Convention, in 1848. It contains information and exhibits ...
National Women's History Month: honorary observance of the month of March, as designated in 1987 by the U.S. Congress, in recognition of women's many accomplishments throughout history. A variety of agencies, schools, and organizations observe the month by focusing on the "consistently overlooked and ...
National Women's History Project: not-for-profit American organization founded in 1980 to "promote multicultural women's history awareness."
National Women's Political Caucus: nonpartisan American political organization formed in 1971 to identify, recruit, train, endorse, and support women seeking public office. The organization endeavours to improve the status of women by amplifying the voice of women in government.
National Zoological Gardens of South Africa: zoo near Pretoria, S.Af., that is noted for its wildlife conservation programs. It was opened in 1899 by the State Museum of the South African Republic on a small stretch of land along the Apies River, which flows through Pretoria. ...
National Zoological Park: zoo in Washington, D.C., that was established under the Smithsonian Institution by acts of the U.S. Congress in 1889 and 1890, when a site in the wooded valley of Rock Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, was purchased. The ...
nationalism: ideology based on the premise that the individual's loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests.
Nationalist Party: political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek and his successors for the remainder of the 20th century.
nationality: in law, membership in a nation or sovereign state. It is to be distinguished from citizenship (q.v.), a somewhat narrower term that is sometimes used to denote the status of those nationals who have full political privileges. Before an act ...
nationalization: alteration or assumption of control or ownership of private property by the state. It is historically a more recent development than and differs in motive and degree from "expropriation" or "eminent domain," which is the right of government to take ...
Nations, League of: an organization for international cooperation established at the initiative of the victorious Allied Powers at the end of World War I.
Native American: member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimo, or Inuit, and Aleuts.
Native American Church: most widespread indigenous religious movement among North American Indians and one of the most influential forms of Pan-Indianism. The term peyote derives from the Nahuatl name peyotl for a cactus. The tops of the plants contain mescaline, an alkaloid drug ...
Native American religions: religious beliefs and sacramental practices of the indigenous peoples of North and South America. Until the 1950s it was commonly assumed that the religions of the surviving Native Americans were little more than curious anachronisms, dying remnants of humankind's childhood. ...
Native Dancer: (foaled 1950), U.S. racehorse (Thoroughbred) who won 21 of 22 starts and achieved widespread popularity as the first outstanding horse whose major victories were seen on national television. Sired by Polynesian out of Geisha, the gray colt was undefeated in ...
native element: any of a number of chemical elements that may occur in nature uncombined with other elements. The elements that occur as atmospheric gasses are excluded.
Nativity: a theme in Christian art depicting the newborn Jesus with the Virgin Mary and other figures, following descriptions of Christ's birth in the Gospels and Apocrypha. An old and popular subject with a complicated iconography, the Nativity was first represented ...
natrolite: hydrated sodium aluminosilicate mineral, Na₂(Al₂Si₃O₁₀)·2H₂O, in the zeolite family. It has been found in the form of colourless or white, glassy, slender crystals or fibrous masses filling cavities or fissures in basaltic rocks, as in Trentino, Italy; Brevik, Nor.; Belfast, ...
Natron, Lake: lake in northern Tanzania on the border with Kenya, lying in the East African Rift System, 70 miles (113 km) northwest of Arusha. The lake is 35 miles (56 km) long and 15 miles (24 km) wide and contains salt, ...
Natsume Soseki: outstanding Japanese novelist of the Meiji period and the first to ably depict the plight of the alienated modern Japanese intellectual.