harrier Any of about 11 species of hawks (subfamily Circinae; family Accipitridae) that are plain-looking, long-legged, long-tailed, and slender. Harriers cruise low over meadows and marshes looking for mice, snakes, frogs, small birds, and insects. They are about 20 in. (50 cm) long and have a small beak and face feathers that form a facial disk. They nest in marshes or tall grass. The best-known harrier is the marsh hawk ( Circus cyaneus ), commonly called hen harrier in Britain, which breeds in tem¬ perate and northern regions throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Other common species are found in Africa, South America, Europe, and Asia.
Harriman, Edward H(enry) (b. Feb. 25, 1848, Hempstead, N.Y., U.S.—d. Sept. 9, 1909, near Turner, N.Y.) U.S. financier and railroad magnate. After working as an office boy and then a stockbroker on Wall Street, he began his career in railroad management as an executive with the Illinois Central. In 1898 he organized a syndicate to acquire the bank¬ rupt Union Pacific Railroad Co., which he soon brought into prosperity. Using unpopular business methods, he acquired several other lines, nota¬ bly the Southern Pacific. His abortive 1901 contest with James J. Hill for control of the Northern Pacific led to one of Wall Street’s most serious financial crises. The railway trust Harriman formed with J.P. Morgan was dissolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1904. His son W. Averell Har¬ riman joined the company in 1915 (chairman 1932-46) and was active in politics; he was elected governor of New York (1954-58) and served the U.S. government as a representative and diplomat in Europe, the Far East, and the Soviet Union.
Harriman, W(illiam) Averell (b. Nov. 15, 1891, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. July 26, 1986, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) U.S. diplomat. The son of Edward H. Harriman, he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. from 1915, serving as chairman of the board from 1932 to 1946. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the National Recovery Adminis¬ tration. In 1941 he went to Britain to expedite lend-lease aid; he later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943^-6) and to Britain (1946), as secretary of commerce (1947-48), and as special U.S. repre¬ sentative to supervise the Marshall Plan (1948-50). He was governor of New York from 1954 to 1958. In 1961 he was appointed assistant sec¬ retary of state for Far Eastern affairs by Pres. John F. Kennedy, for whom he helped negotiate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As ambassador-at-large
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Stephen Harper.
IOURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
Harpsichord with soundboard by Hans Ruckers, Amsterdam, 1612
FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY, FENTON HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD, LONDON; BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH, THE QUEEN MOTHER
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
842 I Harris ► Harrods
for Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, Harriman led the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam (1968-69).
Harris, Sir Arthur Travers, T st Baronet (b. April 13, 1892, Chel¬ tenham, Gloucestershire, Eng.—d. April 5, 1984, Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire) British air officer. He served in World War I and after the war in various posts in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Nicknamed Bomber Harris, as air marshal and commander of the RAF bomber command (1942), he developed the saturation technique of mass bombing (concen¬ trating clouds of bombers in a giant raid on a single city) that was applied with destructive effect on Germany in World War II.
Harris, Barbara Clementine (b. June 12, 1930, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. clergywoman. Harris worked as a public relations executive in the 1960s. An African American, she was also active in the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement before beginning studies for the Anglican clergy in 1974. She was ordained an Episcopal priest in October 1980. On Feb. 11, 1989, despite much opposition, she was con¬ secrated bishop suffragan (assistant) for the diocese of Massachusetts, becoming the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion. As bishop, she continued her advocacy for ethnic minorities and women until her retirement in 2002. In 2003 she began serving as assisting bishop in the diocese of Washington, D.C.
Harris, Joel Chandler (b. Dec. 9, 1848, Eatonton, Ga., U.S.—d. July 3, 1908, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. writer. He became known as a humorist in his pieces for various newspapers, including (1876-1900) the Atlanta Consti¬ tution. He created a vogue for a distinct type of dialect literature with “Tar- Baby” (1879) and later stories that drew on folklore and featured the character Uncle Remus, a wise, genial old black man who weaves his phi¬ losophy of life into tales about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals.
Harris, Roy orig. LeRoy Ellsworth Harris (b. Feb. 12, 1898, near Chandler, Okla., U.S.—d. Oct. 1, 1979, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. com¬ poser. He farmed and did odd jobs to support his music studies. After World War I he attended the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1920s he studied with Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) and Nadia Boulanger, building a reputation for craft and seriousness of purpose. Of his 12 completed sym¬ phonies, the third (1937) is the best known. His music, while unmistakably modern, has roots in folk song and is often sombre and plainspoken.
Harris, Townsend (b. Oct. 3, 1804, Sandy Hill, N.Y., U.S.—d. Feb. 25, 1878, New York City) U.S. diplomat. He served as president of New York City’s board of education and helped found the Free Academy (later City College of New York). In 1847 he left New York to embark on trad¬ ing voyages in the Pacific and Indian oceans. In 1853 he met Matthew Perry in Shanghai and tried to accompany him to Japan, but his bid was rejected. In 1856 he secured an appointment as consul general to Japan; he was unwelcome at first, but changing attitudes in Japan and Harris’s perseverance produced a commercial treaty in 1858 that opened Japanese ports to U.S. trade.
Harrisburg City (pop., 2000: 48,950), capital of Pennsylvania, U.S. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River, the site was first established c. 1718 as a trading post and ferry service by John Harris, who named it Harris’
Ferry. Laid out in 1785, it became known as Harrisburg and was made the state capital in 1812. In 1839 it was the scene of the first national Whig Party convention, which nomi¬ nated William H. Harrison. After completion of the Pennsylvania Rail¬ road’s main line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh in 1847, it developed as a transportation centre. The state capi- tol, with a dome patterned after St.
Peter’s in Rome, was completed in
Harrison, Benjamin (b. Aug.
20, 1833, North Bend, Ohio,
U.S.—d. March 13, 1901, India¬ napolis, Ind.) 23rd president of the U.S. (1889-93). The grandson of William H. Harrison, the 9th presi¬
Benjamin Harrison, photograph by George Prince, 1888.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
dent of the U.S., he practiced law in Indianapolis from the mid-1850s. He served in the Union army in the American Civil War, rising to brigadier general. After a single term in the U.S. Senate (1881-87), he won the Republican nomination for president and defeated the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, in the electoral college, though Cleveland received more popu¬ lar votes. His presidency was marked by passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act. His secretary of state, James Blaine, presided at the conference that led to the establishment of the Pan-American Union, resisted pressure to abandon U.S. interests in the Samoan Islands (1889), and negotiated a treaty with Britain in the Bering Sea Dispute (1891). Defeated for reelec¬ tion by Cleveland in 1892, Harrison returned to Indianapolis to practice law. In 1898-99 he was the leading counsel for Venezuela in its bound¬ ary dispute with Britain.