Norfolk
Norfolk names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Norfolk a city and port of entry who died a short time afterward
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and port of entry who died a short time afterward. She in Norfolk co., Va., on the Elizabeth river, and on the Seaboard Air Line, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Chesapeake and Ohio, Southern, Norfolk and Western, and Virginia railroads; 18 miles from Fort Virginia. Here are a United States Naval Hospital, United States custom house, Norfolk Academy, Old St. Paul's Church, Confederate Monument, libraries, hospitals, parks, clubs, and churches. The city has electric street railroads, gas and electric lights, a good sewerage system, waterworks, several National banks, and a number of daily and weekly newspapers. During the World War the navy yards at Norfolk and Portsmouth were enormously developed. The Government spent over $500,000,000 in the naval district of which Norfolk was the headquarters. The navy yard has an area of 400 acres. It was also an army supply base during the war. A large export trade is carried on in canned goods, early fruits and vegetables, cotton, coal, oysters, and peanuts; for the latter Norfolk is the largest market in the world. The commerce of the port in 1919 was valued at $3,039,- 023,886 and the local industries include lumber, knit goods, iron, guano, and fertilizing establishments, etc. Pop. (1910) 67,452; (1920) 115,777. NORFOLK. A county of England, bounded on the N. and E. by the North Sea, on the W. by Cambridgeshire, and on the S. by Suffolk County. Its total area is 2,053 square miles. It is chiefly an agricultural and stock-raising country, but there are important manufactories of textiles. The chief rivers are the Ouse, Yare, and Bure. Pop. about 550,000.
Norfolk a city of Nebraska
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Nebraska, in Madison co., 75 miles S. W. of Sioux City. It is on the Elkhorn river and on the Chicago and Northwestern and the Union Pacific railroads. It is the center of an important farming and stock-raising region and is also important commercially. It has manufactories of flour, cereal, concrete, packing houses, threshing machine works, etc. It is the division headquarters of the Northwestern railroad. It contains a State hospital for the insane, Federal court house, public library, a park, etc. Pop. (1910) 6,025; (1920) 8,634.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 entry places its Virginia city in "Norfolk co., Va." — a county that no longer exists: in 1963 it merged with the city of South Norfolk to form the city of Chesapeake, and Norfolk itself is now an independent city of about 238,000 (against 115,777 in 1920). The navy yards "enormously developed" during the World War never contracted: Naval Station Norfolk is today the largest naval base in the world and home port of the Atlantic fleet, though the city's boast of being the world's largest peanut market has long since faded. The Norfolk and Western Railway listed here survives only in the name of Norfolk Southern, formed by merger in 1982 and still headquartered in Virginia (in Atlanta since 2021). The English county, given as "about 550,000" people, now holds roughly 900,000 and remains largely agricultural; the Nebraska town of 8,634 is a city of about 25,000.
Written for this edition, 2026.