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Biography Reference Sources

• American National Biography Biographies of individuals from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture. Earlier version (print only), including some entries not in the ANB , is Dictionary of American Biography , below. The library has licensed this database for 1 simultaneous user, so please close the tab or browser when finished searching.
• Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) Very useful index of references to biographical sources. This source is not full text, but it helps you find out if an individual has been written about in another biographical source, and is worth learning to use. --While using this source, you may want to have the Local Catalog , open in a separate tab to check to see if the library owns the source mentioned as containing a biographical entry.
• Biography Reference Bank A Metropolitan Library (OKC public) database. Sign up for a library card if you don't have one. Provides access to biographies, images, articles, abstracts, and interviews of more than half a million people.
• Dictionary of American Biography Call Number: E 176 .D563 (ref collection: Bizzell main floor southeast) Biographies of more than 19,000 American men and women from over 700 fields who died through 1980. Newer version is American National Biography , above, although not all entries from the earlier edition are included in the ANB .
• Notable American Women, 1607-1950 Link to volume 1 (A-F), 2 (G-O), or 3 (P-Z). Covers the lives of exceptional women throughout three and a half centuries of American history.
• Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century Entries on almost five hundred women who died between 1976 and 1999.
• Notable American Women: The Modern Period Companion to Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Entries on 442 women.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) Biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles. The library has licensed this database for 1 simultaneous user, so please close the tab or browser when finished searching.
• Who's Who (Marquis) Biographies of global leaders from every significant field of endeavor. Includes Who's Who in America , Who's Who in the World , Who's Who in American History , Who's Who in American Art , Who's Who in American Politics . The library has licensed this database for 1 simultaneous user. Please logoff when you are finished searching.

Subject Encyclopedias

• Dictionary of American History More than 4,000 entries on all aspects of American history.
• Encyclopedia of African American History Significant people, events, sociopolitical movements, and ideas that have shaped African American life from earliest contact between African peoples and Europeans through the late 20th century.
• Encyclopedia of American Indian History Approximately 450 entries spanning the breadth of Native American history.
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture From the Oklahoma Historical Society.
• Gale Ebooks (was Gale Virtual Reference Library) Access encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Search multiple resources at one time.

English: Reference and Biography

• Journal Articles

Reference and Biography

Shakespeare.

The reference sources listed here provide quick information on primarily English and American literature. These can be very broad or very specific in nature:  for example, an encyclopedia on American literature or an encyclopedia on Mark Twain.  The following list is only a sampling of the many resources available, whether in print or online.

American National Biography (Oxford) Authoritative biographies of deceased Americans. 

Biographical Dictionary of Transcendentalism

Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature

Cambridge Companions Search for companions to authors, works, theories, etc. (examples:  Allegory, American Gay and Lesbian Fiction, Anthony Trollope)

Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters

Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature

Contemporary Authors (incorporated into Gale Literary Sources) Biographical sketches of 20th-century authors who have written in English or have had their works translated into English. 

Critical Survey of Literary Theory Edited by Frank N. Magill Salem Press, c1987 Main Ref PN45 .C74 1987

Dictionary of Literary Biography (incorporated into Gale Literary Sources) "The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered.

Dictionary of Literary Symbols "Explains and illustrates the literary symbols that we all frequently encounter (such as swan, rose, moon, gold), and gives hundreds of cross-references and quotations. The dictionary concentrates on English literature, but its entries range widely from the Bible and classical authors to the twentieth century, taking in American and European literatures."

Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs Edited by Jean-Charles Seigneuret Greenwood Press, 1988 Main Ref PN43.D48 1988

Dictionary of National Biography Biographies of deceased British writers.

Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English

Encyclopedia of Postmodernism

Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Literature

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism  The Guide includes... "entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods."

Literature Resource Center Biographies,bibliographies, critical essays, work overviews, author-relatedwebsites, and timeline events. LRC is drawn in full, or in part, fromthese titles: Contemporary Authors ; Contemporary Literary Criticism (selected), Dictionary of Literary Biography ; Scribner Writer Series ; Twayne's English Authors ; Twayne's U.S. Authors ; Twayne's World Authors ; and several other sources.

Middle English Compendium "The Middle English Compendium has been designed to offer easy access toand interconnectivity between three major Middle English electronicresources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, aHyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MEDbibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, as wellas links to an associated network of electronic resources."

The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas A venerable dictionary.  Many literary terms, themes and motifs are discussed.

Oxford Bibliographies Online:  American Literature A curated list of core books and articles in the study of American literature.

Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford African American Studies Center

The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology .  Chapters on The Protestant and Catholic Reformations, The Enlightenment, The Victorians, Modernism, etc. as well as specific chapters on Joyce, Hardy, George Eliot, Newman and more.

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature . Chapters on Lyric, Satire, Epic, Tragedy, Pastoral, Realism, etc.

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature Jay Parini, editor in chief Oxford University Press, 2004 Main Ref PS21.E537 2004

Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature Oxford University Press, 2006 "The Encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of literature fromthe Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history ofliterature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in themajor literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish,and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors(e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particularthemes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon thewriting or the reading of literature was significant (e.g., TheStationers' Company, the sonnet, the School of Night, or the Sublime)" 

Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature

Oxford Reference Online--Literature .  Great for quick, factual look-ups. Includes sources like the The Oxford Companion to American Literature , The Oxford Companion to English Literature , and the The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare .

Poetry & Short Stories

• Short Stories

Locating Poems

In addition to searching under an author's name in the library's catalog, consider these indexes and web sites:

Granger's Index to Poetry H.W. Wilson, 1904- Main Ref PN1021.G72

Index to Poetry in Periodicals Granger Book Co., c1981- Main Ref PS324 .I4 Covers poems published in American magazines and newspapers, 1915-1929

The American Verse Project Volumes of American poetry prior to 1920.

Representative Poetry On-line Early medieval period to the beginning of the twentieth century. From University of Toronto. Unlike many collections of verse on the Web, this one is edited by scholars. Poems tend to be British and American and number over 3,000.

Reference, Poetic Terms and Concepts  

Dictionary of Literary Biography "The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered.

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Edited by Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan Princeton University Press, 1993 Main Ref PN1021 .N39 1993

Dictionary of Poetic Terms By Jack Myers and Don Charles Wukasch University of North Texas Press, c2003 Main Ref PN1042 .M93 2003

See also the Journal Articles and  Books & E-books sections.

Critical Survey of Poetry Edited by Philip K. Jason Salem Press, c2003 Main Ref PN1021 .C7 2003 Includes biographies and analysis

Poetry Explication : A checklist of Interpretation Since 1925 of British and American Poems Past and Present By Joseph M. Kuntz and Nancy Conrad Martinez G. K. Hall, c1980 Main Ref PN1022.K8 1980

Guide to British Poetry Explication By Nancy C. Martinez and Joseph G.R. Martinez G.K. Hall, 1991-c1995 Main Ref. PN1022.M34 1991 (v.1 Old English - Medieval; v.3 Restoration - Romantic; v.4 Victorian - Contemporary)

American and British Poetry : A Guide to the Criticism, 1925-1978 By Harriet Semmes Alexander Swallow Press, c1984 Main Ref PN1022.A44 1984

Guide to American Poetry Explication: Colonial and Nineteenth-Century By James Ruppert G.K. Hall, c1989 Main Ref Z1231.P7 R66 1989

Guide to American Poetry Explication: Modern and Contemporary By John R. Leo G.K. Hall, c1989 Main Ref Z1231.P7 L46 1989

The Explicator Cyclopedia Edited by Charles Child Walcutt and J. Edwin Whitesell Quadrangle books, 1966-68 Main Ref PR401 .E9

Locating Short Stories

Index to Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prize Stories By Ray Lewis White G.K. Hall, c1988 Main Ref Z1231.F4 W52 1988

Short Story Index: An Index to 60,000 Stories in 4,320 Collections Compiled by Dorothy E. Cook and Isabel S. Monro H. W. Wilson, 1953 Main Ref Z5917.S5 C6 Supplement: 1950-1983 Main Ref Z5917.S5 C62 (7 vols.)

Chicorel Index to Short Stories in Anthologies and Collections Edited by Marietta Chicorel Chicorel Library Pub. Corp., 1974 Main Ref Z5781 .C485

Index to Short Stories Compiled by Ina Ten Eyck Firkins H.W. Wilson company, 1915 Main Ref Z5917.S5 F5 Supplement Main Ref Z5917.S5 F5 Suppl

The Standard Index of Short Stories, 1900-1914 Compiled by Francis J. Hannigan Small, Maynard & Company, c1918 Main Ref Z5917.S5 H2

Reference & Criticism

Note: See also articles and books sections.

Columbia Companion to the 20th-Century American Short Story Dictionary of Literary Biography "The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered. Especially good coverage of short story writers. A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English

Reference Guide to Short Fiction Edited by Noelle Watson St. James Press, c1994 Main Ref PN3373 .R36 1994

Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication ... Shoe String Press, 1961- Main Ref Z5917.S5 W3 and supplements Main Ref Z5917.S5 W33 and supplements Covers 1800-

American Short-Fiction Criticism and Scholarship, 1959-1977 : A Checklist By Joe Weixlmann Swallow Press, c1982 Main Ref Z1231.F4 W43

There are many, many reference sources for all aspects of Shakespeare study -- biographical, theatrical, criticism, textual analysis, etc. Here is short sample:

Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays . Main Ref PR 3012 S53 1999. 

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy . (e-book)  2002.

A Complete and Systematic Concordance to the Works of Shakespeare . Main Ref PR 2892 S6 1970. Six volumes.

A Dictionary of Shakespeare. (e-book) 1998. 

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare . (e-book) 2001.

Shakespearean Characterization: A Guide for Students and Actors .  (e-book) 2002.

Shakespeare: from Stage to Screen .  (e-book) 2004.

Shakespeare after Shakespeare:And Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture . Main Ref PR 2880 S48 2007.

There is no end, it seems, to Shakespeare criticism. You will want to search for books and journal articles-- please refer to the Books and Journal Articles section.  in both cases, you can do a keyword search, for example, for Shakespeare and Hamlet  or  Shakespeare and Women.   Or do a subject search of Shakespeare and browse the subject headings or other phrases to narrow down your search.

Shakespearean Criticism Yearbook: Excerpts from the criticism of William Shakespeare's plays and poetry, from the first published appraisals to current evaluation . Main Ref PR2965 .S43 1984.

General Gateway Sites

Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research Excellent collection of links from Alan Liu, English Dept, UCSB.

• Literature (English)
• Literature (Other)
• Literary Theory

Full-text Resources

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts A full-text indexed collection of classic American and English literature

Online Books Page From the University of Pennsylvania -- access to over 30,000 books on the Web. 

Bartleby Library Literature, reference, and verse.

English Language Resources: The Electronic Text Center A variety of electronic texts and illustrations made available over the Internet from the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia. Some contents available only to UV students.

Victorian Women Writers Project British women writers of the late 19th century. A collection of anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, and volumes of poetry.

General Internet Sources

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes According to Bartleby.com this source "is considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published on writings in the English language. Compiled over fourteen years, from 1907 to 1921."

The Children's Literature Web Guide The Children's Literature Web Guide is an attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults. From the University of Calgary.

Labyrinth: The World Wide Web Server for Medieval Studies A comprehensive resource for Medieval Studies: bibliographies, European cultural studies, pedagogical resources, electronic texts, music.

Luminarium Anthologies of Middle, Renaissance, and 17th Century English literature. A great introduction to the major authors of these periods. Beautiful graphics. Includes biographies, criticism, bibliographies and much more. Very useful as an overview.

Maine Writers Index Over 350 Maine writers, past and present.

New York Times Books (free but registration required to use New York Times' sites.) Includes the complete Sunday Book Review, daily book related news and reviews, a searchable archive of over 50,000 New York Times Book Reviews going back to 1980, and more.

PAL: perspectives in American Literature Covers major movements, narrower themes, and links to individual web pages to nearly 400 authors

The Writers' Workshop Online Resources for Writers (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne) This page links to the many resources produced by this workshop, as well as links to outside resources for writers. Includes the Grammar Handbook, the Bibliography Styles Handbook, and the Writing Process Handbook. Check out their annotated list of "Best Web Sites for Writers."

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General Reference

• Alternative Print & Media

What is Biographical Information?

Library databases.

• Books & Publishing
• Calculation & Conversion
• Cities, States, Regions
• Colleges & Universities
• Country Information
• Dictionaries and Thesauri
• Directories
• Economy / Finance
• Elements / Periodic Table
• Encyclopedias
• Health / Medical
• Images & Audiovisual
• Information Literacy
• Internet & the WWW
• Maps & Gazetteers
• Movie Reviews
• Public Opinion Polls
• Primary Sources
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Head Librarian

Biographical information is information about a particular person's life including

• date of birth
• date of death
• accomplishments
• occupations

Find biographies of people, searching by occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth and death date, and of course by name.  

Search hundreds of reference sources - dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases - for topic overviews and links to our other online resources. Includes mind map/concept map search feature.

• Gale Ebooks - Biography Explore Biography Reference sources in the Gale Ebooks Collection.
• Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Use the Research People box to search for biographical information for national and international persons.

Note:  Access to library databases is restricted to current student , faculty and staff ONLY .

• Biography.com
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• Locations and Hours
• UCLA Library
• Research Guides

Reference Sources in the Social Sciences and Humanities

• Online Reference Collections

General Biographical Indexes

Biographies - politics and government, biographies - literature, biographies - the arts, biographies - education.

• Book Reviews
• Citation Styles
• Dictionaries
• Directories
• Dissertations
• Encyclopedias

Online encyclopedias, dictionaries, and specialized reference sources, primarily in the social sciences and humanities.

Marquis Who Who on the Web provides biographies of over 1.4 million people of note, in the United States and around the world. It is the online counterpart of Marquis renowned biographical dictionaries. All biographies since 1985 are included.

Contains biographical profiles of people from all centuries as well as all countries and regions worldwide. Compiles biographical articles from printed reference works published from the 16th to the 20th century, and reproduces these original documents as facsimile images on the screen.

An illustrated collection of 60,000 biographies of men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's history, up to the present.

DNB; biography; reference

Full-text news (including broadcast transcripts), business, legal, and reference information. Useful for finding full-text of current performing arts and media industry news in major newspapers. Includes biographical information from Who's Who titles. Formerly LexisNexis Academic.

• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Elektronische Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Combining Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie and Neue Deutsche Biographie, contains biographies of prominent Germans from the earliest period to the present.
• Biographical Dictionary
• Biography.com
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - present
• Judges of the United States Courts
• POTUS: Presidents of the United States
• Native American Authors
• IAWA Biographical Database of Women in Architecture Compiled by the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), this database's focus is on historical rather than current women architects. Includes links to inventories of IAWA archival collections.
• University of California In Memoriam Online biographies of UC faculty and administrators from 1928 to 2001. Many memorials for the years 1928-2001 could previously be found at the University of California History Digital Archives. However, that site is no longer maintained. This Internet Archive site allows you to find memorials listed alphabetically by name, but you will have to copy-and-paste the URL that appears after you click on a name.
• In Memoriam, 2002- The In Memoriam is an Academic Senate publication produced by its faculty to honor deceased colleagues.
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Biographical Sources

Biographical reference sources provide information about people who are or were well-known:  their birth and death dates and descriptions of their lives and accomplishments.  There are two basic types of sources:  sketches or essays containing biographical information; and indexes which refer the user to other biographical materials.

Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary .  Merriam-Webster, 1995. This desk-sized dictionary provides essential information about important people in all professions, from around the world and throughout history:  birth and death dates, nationality, pronunciation of name, and primary accomplishments.  It is valuable for checking on lesser-known persons.  If you can afford only a single biographical reference for your collection, purchase this one.

Who's Who ....   Marquis' Who's Who. This publisher produces an entire family of biographical directories; all but Who Was Who in America contain brief records on national and international contemporary leaders from all fields of endeavor.  Birth dates, family names, educational and career highlights, and current contact information are included in each entry.  The cost will be a problem for smaller libraries; however, these titles are now available, by subscription, on the Web at http://www.marquiswhoswho.com .

Current Biography.  H. W. Wilson Company.  This is an excellent source for accurate, up-to-date biographies of the men and women who make today's headlines and tomorrow's history.  Published eleven times a year, each issue includes 18 to 20 profiles of newsworthy people, plus obituaries of those profiled in previous issues.  For an extra charge you may purchase a cumulation of all eleven issues at the end of each year.

Contemporary Authors .  Gale. Something About the Author .  Gale. Users will find biographical information on more than 100,000 modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters in the Contemporary Authors series.  Something About the Author includes information about an additional 10,000+ children's authors and illustrators.  Entries typically include personal information, addresses, career history, writings, work in progress, biographical/critical sources and authors' comments and/or informative essays about their lives and work.  The Contemporary Authors series is available in print and by subscription on the Web at http://www.gale.com . 

American National Biography .  24 volumes.  Oxford University Press, 1999. Dictionary of American Biography.  20 volumes + index.  Scribner's, 1989. These are the two most comprehensive biographical encyclopedias for American history.  Both cover men and women who have made significant contributions to American life from the time of the earliest European explorations up to the very recent past.  The Dictionary of American Biography contains almost 20,000 entries, while the American National Biography lists about 17,500. 

Concise Dictionary of American Biography .  5th ed.  2 volumes.  Scribner's, 1997.  This set contains all entries from the base set in an abridged form.

PolySearch - BIOGRAPHIES .  Peter Jacso, creator/Webmaster. Peter Jacso has designed PolySearch , a new type of meta-search engine which allows the patron to run simple searches across several selected ready reference databases at once.  This PolySearch - BIOGRAPHIES site provides access to biographical information about famous and infamous historical figures, politicians, scientists, authors, artists and athletes.  Since the biographical Web sites were selected by Jacso, an award-winning reference librarian, they can be relied upon for reasonably accurate information.  You will find this free site at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/extra/egyeb/poly-bio.htm . 

Biography Index .  H. W. Wilson Company. This source indexes biographical articles from more than 3,000 periodicals, current books of individual and collective biography, and biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books.  In addition to biographies and autobiographies, there are citations to interviews, obituaries, collections of letters, juvenile literature, and bibliographies.  Indexing covers people from antiquity to the present.

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How do I find reference sources?

• Biographical Sources
• Citation Style Guides
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Biography Databases

• American National Biography This link opens in a new window Licensed for one user at a time. & more less... Offers portraits of more than 17,400 men & women from all eras and walks of life whose lives have shaped the nation. The database includes only deceased individuals.
• Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window & more less... Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.
• Biography Index This link opens in a new window & more less... Biography Index covers biographical information from more than 2,700 English-language periodicals It indexes articles and books, autobiographies, bibliographies, biographies, critical studies, fiction, drama, pictorial works, poetry, juvenile literature, obituaries, journals, collections of letters, book reviews, and interviews.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window & more less... Provides nearly 10,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
• Dictionary of American Biography & more less... a biographical classic, was published in 20 volumes between 1928 and 1934, and 10 supplements have been published between 1944 and 1995, providing scholarly biographies of over 19,000 Americans who died by December 31, 1980. In its electronic form, accessed from workstation in Joseph Regenstein Library first-floor reading room, the text is searchbable by keywords.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography This link opens in a new window & more less... Biographies of people who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada. This first phase presents persons who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years.
• World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS) This link opens in a new window & more less... Comprehensive biographical database providing short biographical information on 3.6 million persons with a historical coverage. Digital facsimile articles from more than 2,300 reference works are also included for 1.3 persons.
• Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window & more less... Covers "Earliest Times" to 2002. Subjects include Irish people and people who have had influence on Ireland
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window & more less... Biographical dictionary of people of distinction in the British Isles and its colonies who died before December 31, 2005. Provides signed articles, each with a bibliography of resource materials, written by specialists.

Other Biographical Sources

To locate biographical sources in print, use the Advanced Search feature in the Library Catalog , entering "Biography" or "Biographies Dictionaries" or "Biographies Directories" as a subject. It often helps to combine this with an additional search term, such as a country, occupation, etc. 

• Great Britain biographies dictionaries
• India Biography Sources
• Physicists biography

Most obituaries appear in newspapers. To locate newspapers, view our guide How do I find newspapers ?  Many of our newspaper databases include a search limit for obituaries.

Obituary Indexes

Obituary indexes can be helpful in finding obituaries for an individual.  Most of these indexes are only in print.  Search "obituary indexes' in the Catalog for a listing.

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Open sourcetools

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
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Finding Biographical Information

• Introduction and Resources of First Resort

Introduction

Resources of first resort.

• Research Approaches
• Biographical Dictionaries
• Book-length Biographies
• Periodical Articles/Obituaries
• Diaries/Autobiographies
• College/University Alumni/ae Biography
• Festschrifts
• Archival Sources
• Government Directories
• Local Histories
• Genealogical Sources
• Boston-Area Biography
• Asia, South & Central
• Asia, Southeast
• Australia/Pacific
• Europe: Regional & by Country, A-F
• Europe: H-N
• Europe: P-Z
• Mexico/Central America
• South America
• Russia/Central Asia
• Middle East
• North America/Canada

Please feel free to email us with questions. We can make an appointment for you to come in, and we can talk at length about your project.

• Fred Burchsted , ([email protected]) Research Librarian and Liaison to the Department of the History, Widener Library
• Anna Assogba , ([email protected]) Research Librarian, Lamont Library.

Book-length biographies are easily found in the HOLLIS Catalog , but short biographical articles are scattered widely in biographical dictionaries, subject encyclopedias and periodicals. 

Try the Resources of First Resort . If you don’t find what you need:

Numerous other biographical sources exist  We have listed some major examples, general and by gender, ethnicity, and occupation, on the Biographical Dictionaries page.

Many other specialized sources are listed on the pages of this guide.

Other Guides

Introductory Library Research Guide for History

Library Research Guide for Finding Manuscripts and Archival Collections

United States

Other Countries

To find individual encyclopedia articles in  HOLLIS : use Everything Advanced Search, do a Title search on your name and in the results list look for Resource Type under Refine Your Results in the right-hand column. Choose  Reference entries .  Example .

Current Biography Illustrated  (1946- ) includes biographical sketches and obituaries, with portraits, of persons deceased since 1946.

Gale In Context: Biography  (formerly Biography in Context) includes full text of many reference books, including Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Black Biography, Directory of American Scholars (10th (2002) ed.), Dictionary of American Biography, Marquis Who’s Who on the Web since 1985. The Biographical Facts Search allows search by occupation, nationality, ethnicity (African-American, Asian- American, Hispanic- American, Native- American only), gender, birth/death year, and place. Available to Massachusetts residents via the State Library of Massachusetts.

Marquis Who’s Who  includes all biographies in the 24 Marquis Who's Who print titles since 1985, together with all biographies from  Who Was Who in America, 1607–1985 .

Notable American women . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971-2004. 5 v. LOCATION: Widener: RR 1711. 34 --Covers women deceased before 1999. Articles include extensive source lists giving particular attention to unpublished sources. Classified index (by field) in each vol. Vols. 1-4 indexed in Biography and genealogy master index. Full text in  Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600-2000

World Biographical Information System  includes full text of thousands of biographical dictionaries accessible by name of biographee. Largely online full text, partly microfiche or print.  What to do if a biographical article is not available online and further information .

World Who’s Who

Thousands of works of collective biography and many biographical periodical articles are indexed in a few general biographical indexes which are listed below. These are not full text; one must do HOLLIS searches for retrieved sources.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index  indexes thousands of English-language biographical dictionaries and other compendia, many more than Biography Resource Center. Includes  Biography Index , which indexes biographical periodical articles as well as collective biography.  Indexes Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography .

IBN: Index bio-bibliographicus notorum hominum . Online Version LOCATION: Widener: RR 1501.15 --Indexes 2000 biographical dictionaries and related works, including non-European publications, published through the 1960s. Gives names, dates, nationalities, and occupations in addition to references to the indexed biographical works, listed in volumes labeled "Key to Sources". Currently extends only to Reulbach, Bernhard. -- ​The online version does not include well-known persons with numerous entries and book-length biographies.

Internationale Personalbibliographie , by Max Arnim. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann, 1952-1987. LOCATION: Widener: RR 1501.7 Library has: 5 Bd. --v. 1-2: 1800-1943; v. 3-5: 1944-1959. --Indexes biographical dictionaries and many scholarly/scientific journals.

American National Biography

African American national biography , ed. by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham. NY: Oxford University Press, 2013, 12 v. Andover-Harv. Theol | Ref. | E185.96 .A4466 2008 (1st ed.) Lamont | REFERENCE | E185.96 .A4466 2008 (1st ed.) Widener RR 4781.60 (2nd ed.; 2013) Online version  (Continuously updated)

Canadian biography , part of the Library and Archives Canada site, contains the  Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Biography Literature (1962-2016) China. In Chinese

Germany and German-speaking

Deutsche biographie

Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie online  Online version is more up-to-date than print. Print version: Widener: RR 1786.5

English version: Dictionary of German biography . München: K.G. Saur, 2001-2006. 10 v. Widener: WID-LC CT759 .D4813 2001x

Datenbank Schriftstellerinnen in Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz 1945-2008

Biographische Nachschlagewerke . List of sources with links to full text

Women writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland : an annotated bio-bibliographical guide , ed. by Elke Frederiksen. NY: Greenwood Press, 1989, 323 p. Schlesinger | Harvard Depository | 016.83 F852w Widener | Harvard Depository | PT167.Z99 W66 x, 1989

Dictionary of Irish biography  

Netherlands

Biografisch Portaal van Nederland

Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (BWN)

Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland (DVN) (Online Dictionary of Dutch Women)

South Africa

Dictionary of South African biography . Cape Town: Published for the National Council for Social Research, Dept. of Higher Education by Nasionale Boekhandel, 1968-1987. 5 v. Widener | Afr 8055.50 103554

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography  (UK)

A biographical encyclopedia of early modern Englishwomen: exemplary lives and memorable acts, 1500-1650 , ed. by Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, and Jo Eldridge Carney. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017, 630 pages : HOLLIS Record

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Biographical Resources: A Research Guide: National and International Biographies

• Introduction
• National and International Biographies
• Biographical Indexes
• K. G. Saur Indexes & Microfiche
• Subject Biographies
• Dissertations and Theses
• Research Help

International Biographies

• Dictionary of World Biography 9th edition, 2022, OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) OAPEN 4476 Online only . Open access. About 9,000 short-entry articles about persons worldwide throughout history, both living and dead. Part of the ANU Lives Series in Biography, an initiative of the National Centre for Biography in the History Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University. The National Centre was established in 2008 to extend the work of the Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Dictionary of African Biography Oxford, 2012. Available online and in print (Africana Library Reference CT 1920 .D52 2012) . "From the pharaohs to Frantz Fanon, Dictionary of African Biography provides a comprehensive overview of the lives of the men and women who shaped Africa’s history." --Publisher's description
• Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography Oxford, 2016. Online only . "a comprehensive overview of the lives of Caribbeans and Afro-Latin Americans who are historically significant..., unprecedented in scale, covering the entire Caribbean, and the Afro-descended populations throughout Latin America, including people who spoke and wrote Creole, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish."
• Visual History Archive [of the USC Shoah Foundation]. [Los Angeles, CA]: USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. Online only . Contains more than 54,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other acts of genocide, recorded in 63 countries and in 40 languages since 1994. Most testimonies have been terminologically indexed at one-minute segments. Aside from Holocaust testimony, the resource includes (as of 20 July 2018) testimonies from the Armenian Genocide (1915-23), the Nanjing (China) Massacre (1937), the Cambodian Genocide (1975-79), the Guatemalan Genocide (1978-83), the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and ongoing conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Also included are testimonies about contemporary acts of violence against Jews.

National Biographies

These national biographies cover persons no longer living who were prominent in the history of that country (often including its colonial extensions). For exact coverage dates and information on other criteria for inclusion, see the front matter of the individual title. Online versions are regularly updated with new entries.

• American National Biography. Online version of the standard national biography of the United States. Profiles of more than 23,000 notable American women and men from all eras of U.S. history who are no longer alive. The ANB Online features thousands of illustrations, thousands of hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and archival sources. Articles are updated and added regularly. The ANB supersedes the Dictionary of American Biography , the previous standard national biography of the United States. For persons not listed in the ANB, check the less authoritative, older National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (Olin Library Reference CT 213 .N27) and the K. G. Saur index and microfiche collection of biographical dictionaries.
• African American National Biography Entries integrated into the Biography section of the Oxford African American Studies Center . "Covering African American life for almost five centuries, from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1528 to notable black citizens of the present day, this major reference project collects and resurrects the lives of over 5,000 African Americans." [Introduction] New biographies added regularly.
• The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Berkshire, 2014. Available online and in print versions Print title : Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography / 宝库山中华传记字典 (Kroch Asia Reference DS 734 .B47 2014). "In 135 entries, written by some of the world's leading China scholars, the Dictionary takes the reader from the important figures of ancient China to Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping." [catalog summary]
• Diccionario Biográfico Español . Call Number: Library Annex CT 1343 .D52 2009 Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2009-2013. 50 volumes. The premier biographical dictionary of Spain.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Online version of the standard Canadian national biography. Full coverage for individuals who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years. Additional biographies cover 1940 to 2000. Annotated bibliographies include substantial listings of archival collections.
• Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie . Call Number: Olin Library Stacks CT 759 .D48 1995 12 volumes. An English-language translation of this title is available, below. For a more extensive version of German biography, available online, see Elektronische Allgemeine deutsche Biographie , below. See also Deutsches Biographisches Archiv from K.G. Saur.
• Dictionary of German Biography . Call Number: Olin Library Reference CT 759 .D48 2001 München: K.G. Saur, 2001-2006. 10 volumes. We also have the German-language edition, Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie . See above.
• Dictionary of Irish Biography. Available online and in print Print title : Dictionary of Irish Biography: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002 (Library Annex CT 862 .D53 2009). 9 volumes. Contains over 9,000 signed biographical articles on the careers of Irish men and women who made a significant contribution from the earliest times to the year 2010 in Ireland and abroad in all fields of endeavor. Also includes articles on people born outside Ireland who had noteworthy careers in Ireland. Online articles may be searched by name, gender, birth or death place, birth or death dates, religion, occupation, contributor, or keywords. Articles will be added each year online to cover people who died since the previous update.
• Elektronische Allgemeine deutsche Biographie: Herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. Also known as Deutsche Biographie . Searchable database for Allgemeine deutsche biographie (ADB) and Neue deutsche Biographie (NDB ). "Certified information on more than 730.000 personalities and families in the German speaking areas from the Middle Ages to the present; namely 50.000 biographies (ADB and NDB) and links to more than 230 online resources (literature, dictionaries, source editions etc.)." [database home page]
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A continuously updated online version of the standard print British national biography, Dictionary of National Biography (Olin Library CT 773 .D55 1921 and supplements), which was originally published from 1885-1901 in 66 volumes and updated with decennial supplements. Over 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000 (newer entries in the online version). Portraits and citations to archival collections and major biographies of the subject. See also the K. G. Saur index and microfiche page .

Other National Biographies

• Australian Dictionary of Biography . Online , including entries from the Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography . Print volumes through volume 18 (1981-1990): Library Annex CT 2801 .A93 +. Online version covers persons who died through 1995. Entries for persons who died from 1996 to 2000 are in progress.
• Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland . Call Number: Olin Library Stacks CT 1143 .B61 + 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1979-1994. In Dutch. 4 volumes. Updated version of Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek , 10 volumes. (Olin Library Stacks Oversize CT1143 .M71 +)
• Chinese Lives: The People Who Made a Civilization . London: Thames & Hudson, 2013. ( 华夏人生: the people who made a civilization .) Online version is available from ProQuest Ebook Central Print version : Kroch Asia Reference DS 734 .M35 2013 Biographical work for major persons in Chinese history. Description from the catalog record .
• Dictionnaire de Biographie Française . Call Number: Olin Library Stacks Oversize CT 143 .D55 + Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1933- In French. 22 volumes plus two supplements so far. List of names covered in each volume .
• Dizionario Biografico degli Italiana . Call Number: Library Annex CT 163 .D62 Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1960-2020. In Italian. 100 volumes. List of names covered in each volume .
• Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon The Austrian Biographical Dictionary lists important personalities who were born, lived or worked in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy or in the respective Austrian state association. Biographies that are not in the foreground of general awareness were also deliberately selected. The print edition of the ÖBL only includes people who died between 1815 and 1950. The online edition, the "Austrian Biographical Lexicon from 1815", which has been published since 2011, contains all printed biographies as well as supplements, corrections and additions. For this online edition, people who lived until 2010 are also considered. [Home page (translation)]
• Polski Slownik Biograficzny . Call Number: Olin Library Stacks CT 1230 .P76 + Kraków: Skład główny w księg, Gebethnera i Wolffa, 1935- . In Polish. 55 volumes so far. List of names covered in each volume .

Reference Help

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