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Westerwald stoneware ... whatnot

Westerwald stoneware: salt-glazed stoneware produced in German towns such as Hohr, Grenzau, and Grenzhausen in the area known as the Westerwald. Their products (jugs, tankards, and the like), made from the 15th ...
Westfield: city, Hampden county, southwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Westfield River, just west of Springfield. Originally part of Springfield, it was the site of the western frontier trading post ...
Westfield State College: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Westfield, Massachusetts, U.S. It is part of the Massachusetts Public Higher Education system. The college offers undergraduate degree programs in such areas as ...
Westinghouse Electric Corporation: major American company that was a leading manufacturer of electrical equipment.
Westinghouse, George: American inventor and industrialist who was chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the United States.
Westlake, John: English lawyer and social reformer who was influential in the field of law dealing with the resolution of problems between persons living in different legal jurisdictions (private international law, or ...
Westland National Park: park in west-central South Island, New Zealand. Established in 1960, it shares a common boundary with Mount Cook National Park along the main divide of the Southern Alps. With an ...
Westmeath: county in the province of Leinster, central Ireland. It is bounded by Counties Cavan (north), Meath (east), Offaly (south), Roscommon (west), and Longford (northwest). The western boundary is the lower ...
Westminster: city, seat (1837) of Carroll county, northern Maryland, U.S., 31 miles (50 km) northwest of Baltimore. It was founded in 1764 by William Winchester and was commonly called Winchester in ...
Westminster: city, Adams and Jefferson counties, north-central Colorado, U.S., a northern suburb of Denver. Settled in 1863 by Pleasant DeSpain, a homesteader, it was named DeSpain Junction and developed as a ...
Westminster Abbey: London church that is the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance. It stands just west of the Houses of Parliament in the Greater London borough of Westminster. ...
Westminster Assembly: (1643-52), assembly called by the English Long Parliament to reform the Church of England, wrote the Larger and Shorter Westminster catechisms, the Westminster Confession, and the Directory of Public Worship. ...
Westminster Catechism: either of two works, the Larger Westminster Catechism and the Shorter Westminster Catechism, used by English-speaking Presbyterians and by some Congregationalists and Baptists. Written by the Westminster Assembly, which met ...
Westminster Confession: confession of faith of English-speaking Presbyterians. It was produced by the Westminster Assembly, which was called together by the Long Parliament in 1643, during the English Civil War, and met ...
Westminster School: distinguished public (privately endowed) school near Westminster Abbey in the borough of Westminster, London. It originated as a charity school (1179) founded by Benedictine monks. In 1540 Henry VIII made ...
Westminster, City of: inner borough of London, lying on the north bank of the River Thames at the heart of London's West End. The City of Westminster is flanked to the west by ...
Westminster, Statute of: (1931), statute of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that effected the equality of Britain and the then dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and Newfoundland.
Westminster, Statutes of: (1275, 1285, 1290), three statutes important in medieval English history, issued in "parliaments" held by Edward I at Westminster. Each comprised a miscellaneous series of clauses designed to amend or ...
Westmore Family: family of Hollywood makeup artists credited with having introduced the art of makeup to the motion-picture industry.
Westmoreland: county, southwestern Pennsylvania, U.S., located just east of Pittsburgh and bounded to the north and northeast by the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh rivers, to the east by Laurel Hill, to the ...
Westmorland: historic county of northwestern England, bounded on the north and west by Cumberland, on the southwest and southeast by Lancashire, on the east by Yorkshire, and on the northeast by ...
Westmorland, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of, 4th Baron Neville Of Raby: English noble who, though created earl by King Richard II, supported the usurpation of the crown by Henry IV and did much to establish the Lancastrian dynasty.
Weston: city, seat of Lewis county, central West Virginia, U.S., on the West Fork River. The site was surveyed by Colonel Edward Jackson, grandfather of the American Civil War general Thomas ...
Weston, Edward: British-born American electrical engineer and industrialist who founded the Weston Electrical Instrument Company.
Weston, Edward: major American photographer of the early to mid-20th century, best known for his carefully composed, sharply focused images of natural forms, landscapes, and nudes. His work influenced a generation of ...
Weston, Randy: American jazz pianist and composer, noted for his use of African rhythms.
Weston-super-Mare: town, North Somerset unitary authority, historic county of Somerset, England, on the Bristol Channel. It is situated on a sandy bay between the promontory of Brean Down (now owned by ...
Westphalia: historic region of northwestern Germany, comprising (with the former state of Lippe) the present federal Land (state) of North Rhine-Westphalia and parts of the Lander (states) of Lower Saxony and ...
Westphalia, Peace of: the European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years' War. The peace ...
Westport: port town, West Coast local government region, northwestern South Island, New Zealand. It lies at the mouth of the Buller River. Coal and gold were discovered in the area in ...
Westport: urban town (township), Fairfield county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. It lies along Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Saugatuck River just east of Norwalk. The area, which the local ...
westward movement: the populating (by Europeans) of the land within the continental boundaries of the mainland United States, a process that began shortly after the first colonial settlements were established along the ...
wet collodion process: early photographic technique invented by Frederick Scott Archer of England in 1851. To a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) Archer added a soluble iodide and coated a glass plate with ...
wet gas: natural mixture of hydrocarbons that may be gaseous or both liquid and gaseous in the reservoir and that contains an appreciable proportion of compounds heavier than ethane (e.g., propane or ...
Wet, Christiaan Rudolf de: Boer soldier and statesman, regarded by Afrikaner nationalists as one of their greatest heroes. He won renown as commander in chief of the Orange Free State forces in the South ...
Wetar Island: island in the Banda Sea, Maluku provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. It lies 35 miles (56 km) north of and across the Wetar Strait from the northeastern coast of Timor. Wetar Island ...
Wetaskiwin: city, central Alberta, Canada. It lies 44 miles (71 km) south of Edmonton. The missionary Father Albert Lacombe named the first settlement from a Cree Indian term meaning "place of ...
Wethered, Joyce: golfer who was widely regarded as the greatest British woman player of her day.
Wethersfield: urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S. It lies immediately south of Hartford on the Connecticut River. Settled in 1634 and called Watertown by a group led by John ...
wetland: terrestrial ecosystem characterized by poor drainage and the consequent presence most or all of the time of sluggishly moving or standing water saturating the soil. Wetlands are usually classified, according ...
Wetmore, Alexander: American ornithologist noted for his research on birds of the Western Hemisphere.
Wettin Dynasty: major European dynasty, genealogically traceable to the start of the 10th century AD. Its earliest known ancestors were active in pushing Germany's frontier eastward into formerly Slav territory; and by ...
wetting agent: chemical substance that increases the spreading and penetrating properties of a liquid by lowering its surface tension-that is, the tendency of its molecules to adhere to each other. See detergent; ...
Wettstein, Johann Rudolf: burgomaster of Basel who, at the close of the Thirty Years' War, represented the Swiss Confederation at the Congress of Westphalia (in Munster, 1647-48), where he secured European recognition of ...
Wetzstein, Johann Gottfried: Orientalist who propounded (1873) a "literal" interpretation of the Song of Solomon, which, despite its presence in the Old Testament, he read as an anthology of love songs having no ...
Wewak: coastal town, northern Papua New Guinea, near the mouth of the Sepik River. Economic activities are limited due to primitive hinterland conditions, but there are some coffee and coconut plantations ...
Wewoka: city, seat (1907) of Seminole county, east-central Oklahoma, U.S. Founded by the offspring of African Americans and Creek Indians in 1843, the town takes its name from a Creek village ...
Wexford: county in the province of Leinster, southeastern Ireland. It is bounded on the east and south by the Irish Sea and from west to north by Counties Kilkenny, Carlow, and ...
Wexford: seaport and county seat, County Wexford, Ireland, on the River Slaney. The name Wexford derives from the Norse settlement of Waesfjord. It was an early colony of the English, having ...
Weyburn: city, southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, on the Souris River. It was settled during the 1890s after the Soo Line Railroad from Estevan came through to Moose Jaw (92 miles [149 km] ...
Weyden, Rogier van der: Flemish painter who, with the possible exception of Jan van Eyck, was the most influential northern European artist of his time. Though most of his work was religious, he produced ...
Weyerhaeuser, Frederick: American lumber capitalist who put together a syndicate owning millions of acres of timberland, as well as sawmills, paper mills, and other processing plants.
Weygand, Maxime: French army officer who in World War I served as chief of staff under Gen. (later Marshal) Ferdinand Foch and who in World War II, as commander in chief of ...
Weyl, Hermann: German American mathematician who, through his widely varied contributions in mathematics, served as a link between pure mathematics and theoretical physics, in particular adding enormously to quantum mechanics and the ...
Weyler y Nicolau, Valeriano, Marques De Tenerife: Spanish general who, as captain general of Cuba shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (1898), used stern antirebel measures that were exploited by U.S. newspapers to inflame public ...
Weymouth: town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on Hingham Bay and the Weymouth Fore and Weymouth Back rivers, just southeast of Boston. The township embraces the villages of ...
Weymouth and Portland: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Dorset, England, on the English Channel. Bronze Age weapons and Roman interments have been found on the site. Weymouth's first specific charter (1252) ...
Weyprecht, Karl: Arctic explorer who discovered Franz Josef Land, an archipelago north of Russia, and who advanced a successful scheme for international cooperation in polar scientific investigations.
whale: any of the larger species of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Cetacea. The term whale can be used in reference to any cetacean, including porpoises and dolphins, but in ...
whale louse: (family Cyamidae), any of a small group of highly specialized peracaridan crustaceans (order Amphipoda) related to the familiar skeleton shrimp found in shallow marine habitats. Whale lice are external parasites ...
whale oil: any oil derived from any species of whale, including sperm oil from sperm whales, train oil from baleen whales, and melon oil from small toothed whales.
whale shark: (Rhincodon typus), gigantic but harmless shark (family Rhincodontidae) found worldwide but mainly in the tropics. The largest of living fishes, it often grows to about 9 m (30 feet) long ...
whaleboat: light, swift, rowing and sailing boat fitted with a centreboard (retractable keel), initially developed for use by whaling crews and now used more generally. Its double-ended, broad-beamed design is reminiscent ...
whalebone: series of stiff keratinous plates in the mouths of baleen whales, used to strain plankton from seawater. Whalebone was once important in the production of corsets, brushes, and other goods.
Whalen, Philip: American poet who emerged from the Beat movement of the mid 20th century, known for his wry and innovative poetry.
whaler: the blue shark (q.v.) or certain gray sharks of the family Carcharhinidae. See carcharhinid.
Whales, Bay of: former indentation in the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. First seen by the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross in 1842 and visited by a fellow countryman, Ernest Henry (later Sir ...
whaling: the hunting of whales for food and oil. Whaling was once conducted around the world by seafaring nations in pursuit of the giant animals that seemed as limitless as the ...
Wharfe, River: river in the historic county of Yorkshire in north-central England. It rises in the Pennines in the administrative county of North Yorkshire and then flows 60 miles (97 km) southeast ...
Wharfedale: upper valley of the River Wharfe within the Pennine uplands, in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, noted for its scenic attractions. The valley descends from the western part of ...
Wharton, Edith: American author best known for her stories and novels about the upper-class society into which she was born.
Wharton, Philip Wharton, 4th Baron: prominent English reforming peer from the Civil Wars to the Revolution of 1688-89.
Wharton, Thomas, 1st Marquess of Wharton: English peer who was one of the principal Whig politicians after the Glorious Revolution (1688-89).
Wharton, William: pseudonymous American novelist best known for his innovative first novel, Birdy (1979; filmed 1984), a critical and popular success.
Whately, Richard: Anglican archbishop of Dublin, educator, logician, and social reformer.
whatnot: series of open shelves supported by two or four upright posts. The passion for collecting and displaying ornamental knickknacks, which appeared in the 18th century and was widespread in the ...