Ross
Ross names 5 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Ross SIR JOHN, an English Arctic navigator
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR JOHN, an English Arctic navigator; born in Inch, Wigtownshire, Scotland, June 24, 1777. In 1786 he entered the navy, and saw a considerable amount of service before the peace of 1815, which found him with the rank of commander. In 1817 he accepted the command of an admiralty expedition to search for a N. W. passage, and in April, 1818, set sail in the "Isabella," accompanied by Lieutenant Parry in the "Alexander." After passing through Davis Straits and Baffin Bay the vessels entered Lancaster Sound and proceeded up it for a considerable distance, when Ross conceived the erroneous idea that the sound was here brought to a termination by a chain of mountains, and accordingly returned to England. Shortly after landing he was advanced to the rank of postcaptain, and the following year published an account of his voyage. His next expedition, in the steamer "Victory," was equipped by Sir Felix Booth and set out in May, 1829. Ross entered Prince Regent Inlet and discovered and named Boothia Felix and King William Land. In 1832 he was forced to abandon his ships, and he and his crew suffered great hardships before they were picked up in August, 1833, by his old ship, the "Isabella." In 1834 Captain Ross was knighted, and in the following year published a narrative of his second voyage. From 1839 till 1845 he was consul at Stockholm. In 1850 he made a last Arctic voyage in the "Felix," in a vain endeavor to ascertain the fate of Sir John Franklin. He became a rear-admiral in 1851, and died in London, England, Aug. 30, 1856.
Ross SIR JAMES CLARK, an English Arctic and Antarctic explorer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR JAMES CLARK, an English Arctic and Antarctic explorer; born in London, England, April 15, 1800. He entered the British navy at the age of 12, accompanied his uncle, Sir John Ross, on his two voyages in search of a N. W. passage, and in the interval between them accompanied Capt. William Parry in his three Arctic voyages. He was promoted to the rank of post-captain in 1834, particularly for the discovery of the North magnetic pole in 1831. He commanded the expedition in the "Erebus" and "Terror" to the Antarctic Ocean in 1839- 1843; and on his return published a narrative of that voyage, which had contributed largely to geographical and scientific knowledge generally. Captain Ross was knighted for his services, and received numerous other honors. In 1848 he made a voyage in the "Enterprise" to Baffin Bay in search of Sir John Franklin. He died in Aylesbury, England, April 3, 1862.
Ross EDWARD ALSWORTH, an American economist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD ALSWORTH, an American economist, born at Virden, Ill., in 1866. He graduated from Coe College in 1886 and took post-graduate studies at the University of Berlin and at Johns Hopkins. ns. In 1891-2 he was professor of economics at Indiana University, and in 1892-3 was associate professor of political economy and finance at Cornell. He became professor of sociology in Leland Stanford Jr. University in 1893; he occupied the same chair at the University of Nebraska (1901-6). In 1906 he was professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He lectured on sociology at Harvard, Chicago, and other universities. His works on economic subjects include "Honest Dollars" (1896); "Social Control" (1901); "Sin and Society" (1907); "The Changing Chinese" (1911); "Changing America" (1912); "The Old World in the New" (1914); "Russia in Upheaval" (1918); and "What Is America?" (1919).
Ross BETSY, famous in history as the maker of the first American flag
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BETSY, famous in history as the maker of the first American flag. She was born in 1752, in Philadelphia, a daughter of Samuel Griscom, who helped to erect Independence Hall, and was married to John Ross. Following the decision of the Continental Congress in respect to a national flag, a committee, including George Washington, on, Robert Morris, and George Ross called on Mrs. Ross and invited her to undertake the sewing. She agreed and it was on her suggestion that the five-point rather than the six-point star was used. Mrs. Ross contracted to make all the government flags and the business continued in the family till 1857. Mrs. Ross died in 1836. In 1898 the Betsy Ross Memorial Association was formed, and in 1905 the house of Betsy Ross was converted into public property as the American Flag House.
Ross ROBERT BALDWIN, a British art critic
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROBERT BALDWIN, a British art critic, born at Tours, France, in 1869. He was the son of John Ross, attorneygeneral for Upper Canada, and received part of his education at Cambridge University, England. He took up newspaper writing and soon became known as an authority on art, the drama and literature. A In 1908-12 he worked on the staff of the "Morning Post" and acted as adviser to the Inland Revenue on picture valuations, 1912-14. He wrote and edited some books, among them Wilde's works and a biography of Aubrey Beardsley. He died in London in 1918.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's stated flatly in 1921 that Betsy Ross made the first American flag at the request of a committee including Washington; historians now treat that as an unverified family tradition, first told publicly by her grandson William Canby in 1870, with no contemporary document supporting it. Two other entries have had their reticence undone: Robert Baldwin Ross is remembered today less as a Morning Post art critic than as Oscar Wilde's friend, lover and literary executor, whose ashes were placed in Wilde's Paris tomb in 1950; and Edward Alsworth Ross, who lived until 1951, is now read as much for his advocacy of immigration restriction and "race suicide" as for his sociology, while his 1900 dismissal from Stanford helped prompt the founding of the American Association of University Professors. The great postscript to the Ross voyages came in 2014 and 2016, when the wrecks of Erebus and Terror — the ships James Clark Ross took to the Antarctic before Franklin took them north — were found in the Canadian Arctic.
Written for this edition, 2026.