Biographical Information - Individuals
Biographies organized by COUNTRY/NATIONALITY (must be dead to be included):
- American national biography online This link opens in a new window
Discover biographies of more than 19,000 men and women — from all eras and walks of life — whose lives have shaped American history and culture.
- Australian dictionary of biography This link opens in a new window
Presents concise biographical articles on significant and representative persons in Australian history.
- Oxford dictionary of national biography This link opens in a new windowProvides authoritative biographies of deceased individuals who influenced British history, including colonial British-Americans. Biographies include a listing of major works written by the individual (if any) and a reference list of full-length biographies and critical articles. Each biography also includes a "Reputation" section which describes the individual's standing in his or her time period and how that has changed since then. Very helpfully will indicate where the individual's archives are, if they exist. Also provides links to major themed articles (on the American Founding Fathers, for instance), entries to related individuals, and to other online resources produced by Oxford University Press (which we may or may not have access to). Oxford University Press.
- Dictionary of Irish biography This link opens in a new window
Covers Irish men and women from the earliest times until 2001, providing biographies and a sense of their influence on Irish history, culture, and life.
- World biographical information system This link opens in a new windowBrief biographies of individuals from various international sources.
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Online)In English and French, this work includes Canadians who died between 1000 CE and 1930 CE.
- African Biography on the InternetA list of links to web pages on or about Africans of the 20th and 21st centuries, most biographies are of authors. Provided by Columbia University Libraries' Global Studies division.
Biographies organzied by CAREER or PROFESSION:
- Dictionary of literary biography This link opens in a new window
Presents career biographies and criticisms of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods. Contains articles on literary authors from throughout the world.
- Oxford art online This link opens in a new windowServes as a portal to several important art related resources: Grove Art, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Search by terms biographies, subject entries, or images. Oxford University Press.
- Oxford music online This link opens in a new windowThe most comprehensive reference work for music in English, with continually updated content. Searches Grove Music Online initially; on search results pages, provides links to more results from The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press.
- 20th century American poetry This link opens in a new window
Provides full text of thousands of American poems from 1900 to present. Searchable by poet, by first line or title, and by keyword(s)in poems.
- 20th century English poetry This link opens in a new window
Provides full text of thousands of British poems from 1900 to present day. Includes works in English by poets from outside the British Isles, as well as significant translations of non-English poetry.
- Orlando : women's writing in the British Isles from the beginnings to the present This link opens in a new windowOrlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present includes biographical and writing career entries on British women writers, selected non-British or international women writers, and selected British and international men. Also includes dated items representing events and processes (in the accounts of these writers, but also in the areas of history, science, medicine, economics, the law, and other contexts). Entries include information on the author’s writing, including Author Summary, Intertextuality and Influence, Reception, Responses (literary), Textual Features, Literary Setting, Theme or Topic (treated in text), Textual Production. Sections on the author include: Life, Cultural Formation, Family and Intimate Relationships, Occupation. Cambridge.
Biographies of LIVING Individuals (including those who may now be dead):
- Current biography illustrated This link opens in a new window
Provides short biographies of persons currently in the news and about whom no full-length biography exists as of the date of publication in Current Biography.
- Gale In Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides full-text access to a variety of news and reference sources containing the biographies of individuals from all time periods.
Obituaries
A good obituary is a great source of information. You can use the two or three sources listed below, or Google your person's name followed by obituary.
- ProQuest historical newspapers. Black newspapers collection This link opens in a new window
Provides the full-text of nine major African American newspapers - Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Cleveland Call and Post.
- ProQuest historical newspapers. The New York times This link opens in a new window
Provides searching and digital access to the New York Times newspaper from its beginnings in 1851 to three years short of the current year.
- Times digital archive 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and full-text access to the Times (London) newspaper from its inception to 2019.
"Biographical" Information - Organizations
Grass Roots Movements & Groups
Black Lives Matter
Greenpeace
PETA
#MeToo
These groups and movements can all be researched, but the more recently they have occurred the more widely you will want to search. I'll demo how to research both the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo campaign/movement to demonstrate how to search for "biographies of these types of groups.
Businesses, Organizations, Non-Profits
These groups often have to be legitimized in some way and because of this are easier to search. They can be searched in online catalogues as you would search for people, by their name. You can add history to the search to see if there are focused works on these groups: American Red Cross history, for example.
You can also try searching in business databases for information on them. I've listed two below that might help.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text business journals and scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.
- ProQuest One Business This link opens in a new window
Provides business information from scholarly and popular periodicals, newspapers, market research reports, dissertations, books, videos and more.
Book-length Biographies
To search for book-length, scholarly biographies about a person:
- go to BearCat and select the General Subjects (LCSH) box (this will search for works about your person and leave out works he or she has written).
- Enter their name in the "Last name, first name" format and click the Search button (or hit the Enter key on the keyboard).
- If you get no results, first make sure you have correctly spelled the person's name (especially names of individuals from ancient Greece or Rome, saints, kings and queens and rulers, or foreign names that may involve a double last name).
- If you still find nothing, try WorldCat - which will search libraries across the United States. We can borrow books from these libraries for you. You may use the
button or the link Request via Interlibrary Loan to order the book. Books will take about 7 - 10 days to arrive.
People
