The three most authoritative biographical dictionaries for American and British history are listed below: The American National Biography Online, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (British History), and the African American National Biography (African American Studies Center Online). To find biographical information about subjects not covered in these three reference works use one of the following approaches.
Articles & more
Type the name of a subject into the Articles & more section of the Library's catalog and refine your results to "Biography" under Format. The catalog will retrieve results from a large variety of electronic reference works. Use Findit to link to the full text.
Books & more
Type the name of a subject into the Books & more section of the Library's catalog to find book-length biographies. Focus your search through a subject search (Advanced search). Alternatively, try a subject search for a group of subjects using the following pre-defined terms: Biography and Dictionary and [group of subjects]
Example: Biography and Dictionary and Women
Example: Biography and Dictionary and Women and Scientists
Try the same in WorldCat if local results are not satisfactory.
Biographical Dictionaries
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press)
African American Studies Center (Oxford University Press)
Includes the African American National Biography project (estimated at 8 volumes).
AncestryLibrary (ProQuest)
Provides access to a range of databases with biographical information. Includes census data, vital records, directories, voter lists, immigration records, images, and more.