Biography (Electronic Reference Sources)

Searchable by subject, keyword, or name, the Registry includes biographical information on African American historical figures.

Produced by the U.S. House of Representatives and "based on the book Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007, contains biographical profiles of former African-American Members of Congress, links to information about current black Members, essays on institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of African Americans in Congress, and images of each individual Member, supplemented by other historical photos."

Provides short biographies of individuals who "have contributed to the shaping of African American history." Entries are brief, but each includes a citation to the source from which the information was obtained.

A free database of biographical and discographical information on musical performers and recordings from every era and genre.

"A reference book covering individual designers and fashion houses that have been active throughout the 20th and 21st centuries." 2nd edition. A freely accessible version is also available.

"Features thorough coverage of legendary films, actors, actresses, directors, writers, and other production artists through detailed essays and commentary by experts. Entries include biographies, filmographies, comprehensive credits, production information, major awards, and bibliographies." Electronic version of the 4 volume 4th edition. A freely accessible version is also available.

The official database for Broadway theater information, including records of productions from the beginnings of NewYork theatre until today, information on pertinent people, interesting facts, and production statistics.

A free database of information on movies and TV titles, plus actors and actresses, directors, and others involved with film.

"Biographies on more than 600 people from around the world and throughout history who have had an impact not only on their sport, but also on the society and culture of their times. It also includes not only the record-breakers that dominated and changed their sport, but also the controversial figures that made headlines even apart from athletic events."

An online version of The Grove Dictionary of Art, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the The Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and more. Browse alphabetically or search for articles on all aspects of art, including biographies of painters, sculptors, graphic artists, architects, furniture makers, ceramists, photographers, illuminators, calligraphers, patrons, collectors, agents, dealers, and more.

Browse alphabetically or search for articles on all aspects of music, including biographies of musicians. Bibliographic citations and related links are also searchable. Includes Grove Music Online.

"Introduces researchers to the authors and illustrators behind these works, taking care to define and explore the distinction between comic books and graphic novels." Electronic version of the 3 volume print resource.

Includes resources for locating biographies in business, management, advertising, economics, accounting, and other areas.

An electronic version of the 4 volume resource containing "biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women writers covering all genres and all periods of American history."

Provides a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers, plus links to complete published books written by women, spanning 3000 BC to the present, and more than 125 countries.

Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on U.S. and international authors, including playwrights.

Brief biographies of authors. Includes photographs.

Searchable database of author biographies, bibliographies, and literary criticism. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers. Also includes Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.

A bio-bibliographical database with signed entries on more than 860 German-speaking authors active since 1945. Entries include segments for biography, prizes awarded, critical essay, and bibliographies of the writer’s works in text, audiobook, radio broadcast, or film, and secondary literature about the works.

Includes biographical entries for more than 4,000 authors.

"Provides biographical and critical essays on 223 writers connected to or concerned with the Holocaust, as well as separate essays on 307 of their works."

"Contains biographical and critical essays on 376 of the most important writers of short fiction writing in English worldwide, and 403 separate essays on selected works. Also includes some authors of note who did not write in English, but whose works have been widely translated and are often studied, such as Anton Chekhov and Jean-Paul Sartre."

"Contains biographical and critical essays on authors from throughout the world, as well as essays covering specific work or works of an author, with criticism and analysis of those works." Electronic version of the 2 volume 3rd edition of the print resource.

"Introduces researchers to the authors and illustrators behind these works, taking care to define and explore the distinction between comic books and graphic novels." Electronic version of the 3 volume print resource.

A collection of short biographies and works of the pioneers in pathology.

Includes over 10,000 scholarly biographies of persons who were significant in Australian history.

"Provides information on men and women of the Chinese world who lived at the time of Later (or Eastern) Han, from Liu Xiu, founding Emperor Guangwu (reg. 24-57), to the celebrated warlord Cao Cao (155-220) at the end of the dynasty."

Covers "the 6,000 individual men and women known to us from China’s formative first empires. Includes "writers, scholars, historians and philosophers, but also those officials who administered the empire, and the military leaders who fought in civil warfare or with China’s neighbours."

A freely accessible relational database with biographical information about more than 350,000 individuals, primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries.

Biographical information on more than 4000 Chinese leaders in government, politics, the military, education, business, and the media.

Search or browse for biographical articles about people who have played an important role in Canadian history.

Full text images of the multi-volume work containing biographies of notable figures in British history.

Contains over 3,000 biographies of New Zealanders who have 'made their mark' on the country. It does not include people who are alive.

"This online collection of over one hundred Finnish biographies includes famous national figures, politicians and artists as well as a witch burned at stake and an 18th century bear hunter."

The classic source for biographical information on the United Kingdom and the British Empire, with nearly 58,000 biographies and nearly 11,000 portraits.

Provides accessible and well-researched biographies of a wide range of figures, from Buddhist masters to artists and political officials; most essays are peer reviewed.

Includes the biographies of judges who have served "since 1789 on the U.S. district courts, U.S. courts of appeals, Supreme Court of the United States, and U.S. Court of International Trade, as well as the former U.S. circuit courts, Court of Claims, U.S. Customs Court, and U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals."

A list of important civil war generals and commanders, along with links to more information and articles about each one. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the world’s largest publisher of history magazines.

Contains basic facts about Civil War Union and Confederate servicemen, plus related information about regiments, battles, etc. taken from records maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.

"Covers the history of the conflict, going back to the birth of Zionism at the end of the 19th century. The two-volume set covers five Arab-Israeli wars, and provides biographies of political personnel in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and the occupied territories."

Provides biographical sketches and timelines for a selected group of political leaders. New content is added on a continuing basis.

Includes brief biographies and contact information for all current U.S. governors and governors' spouses. Also provides advanced search features and information on governors of the past. From the National Governors Association.

Biographical information on Medal of Honor winners from the Civil War to the present. From the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

Covers cases from the Supreme Court of the United States, and includes biographical information on justices past and present.

Biographies of senior Navy leaders and flag officers.

Use the pull-down menu at the top of the page to find biographical facts, key events, places, and related reference material about each President. Provided by C-SPAN.

Short biographies of every First Lady from Martha Dandridge Custis Washington to Dr. Jill Biden. Provided by the White House.

Includes a complete biography of each First Lady (and/or White House hostess), as well as a bibliography of materials, books, articles, etc. by or about each First Lady, and an historical timeline that spans each First Lady’s life. Provided by the National First Ladies' Library.

Includes presidential recordings, speeches, oral histories, biographical information, and more.

Short biographies of every United States President. Provided by the White House.

Includes detailed biographies of past and present Presidents and First Ladies.

"Most of these entries were selected from the Dictionary of Early American Philosophers (2 volumes, Continuum, 2011) or the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers (4 volumes, Thoemmes-Continuum, 2005), with some condensation and updating. A few dozen new entries are added for still-active philosophers, so that figures born after 1940 have some representation..."--Introduction.

"Looks at Islam's role in the modern world, doing so in context of the religion's history and development over the last 13 centuries. Contains thematic articles, biographies of key figures, definitions, illustrations, maps and more." Electronic version of the 2 volume print resource.

Provides biographical sketches and timelines for a selected group of spiritual & religious leaders. New content is added on a continuing basis.

An alphabetical index to biographical articles on distinguished Jews, with citations to sources. Includes separate listings for biographies of Jewish women, Rabbis and religious figures, Jewish fashion icons, Jewish Nobel Prize winners, and Jews in sports.

"Embraces the whole Jewish world and all of Jewish culture from the Hebrew Bible to the present."

Web versions of articles from the Catholic Encyclopedia on every Pope from St. Peter to St. Pius X.

Articles on persons and subjects related to Catholicism and the humanities, including topics such as abortion, divorce, cloning, and reproductive technologies. Also features biographies of contemporary religious figures, photos, maps, and illustrations. The supplement is the Jubilee Volume focusing "on the pontificate of John Paul II and includes thematic essays that present the man and his work."

Very brief biographical information with some links to related resources and an emphasis on pre-20th century women.

Brief information on all of those inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Provides biographical information on the members of the space flight crews and candidates for future missions in NASA's space flight program.

From the National Academy of Sciences and "published since 1877, Biographical Memoirs are brief biographies of deceased National Academy of Sciences members, written by those who knew them or their work."

Biographical essays with some photos.

"Provides information on the history of science through articles on the professional lives of scientists. All periods of science from classical antiquity to modern times are represented." Electronic version of the 26 volume print resource.

Includes biographies of more than 1,500 mathematicians. Indexes are alphabetical and chronological with additional features such as a time line and a separate index of female mathematicians.

Accounts of the lives and works of seventeenth and eighteenth century mathematicians (and some other scientists), adapted from A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. Rouse Ball (4th Edition, 1908).

Searchable by categories such as name or year inducted, or by keyword.

Profiles of Chicano/Latino and Native American scientists. Organized by scientist’s last name, by scientific subject/discipline, by ethnicity, and by women scientists.

Biographical information, personal essays, and videos by and about women at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

A Research Guide from the Library of Congress, this site provides links to selected books, journal articles, historical works, and other resources on women in science.

Collected links to biographical resources for New Jersey.

Profiles prominent Pennsylvanians who contributed to the development of the Commonwealth in many fields of endeavor, but contains ONLY the volumes of the encyclopedia known to be in the public domain (the first 14 volumes published before 1923). Also includes brief biographies of notable Pennsylvanians at the turn of the century from Who's Who in Pennsylvania (1904 and 1908 editions).

Search by last name, first name, position, state, party, year, or Congress to retrieve brief biographical articles with bibliographies.

Produced by the U.S. House of Representatives and "based on the book Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007, contains biographical profiles of former African-American Members of Congress, links to information about current black Members, essays on institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of African Americans in Congress, and images of each individual Member, supplemented by other historical photos."

A single point of access for Member information from several different official sources.

Includes biographical profiles as well as historical essays, digitized artifacts, and relevant data.

Very brief biographical information with some links to related resources and an emphasis on pre-20th century women.

Part of the Everyday Life of Women in America, c. 1800-1920 collection.

An electronic version of the 4 volume resource containing "biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women writers covering all genres and all periods of American history."

Biographical essays with some photos.

Provides a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers, plus links to complete published books written by women, spanning 3000 BC to the present, and more than 125 countries.

"Captures the lives of more than 150 women who made their mark from the mid-1800s to the present, contextualizing their experiences and contributions to American society." The encyclopedia "covers nine diverse topical categories: agriculture/ranching, arts and letters, education, entrepreneurs, law, pioneers, public performance, religion, and women's organizations."

Articles on women reformers from the French Revolution to the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, with a few important contemporary figures.

Short biographies of every First Lady from Martha Dandridge Custis Washington to Dr. Jill Biden. Provided by the White House.

Includes a complete biography of each First Lady (and/or White House hostess), as well as a bibliography of materials, books, articles, etc. by or about each First Lady, and an historical timeline that spans each First Lady’s life. Provided by the National First Ladies' Library.

"Embraces the whole Jewish world and all of Jewish culture from the Hebrew Bible to the present."

Includes biographies of more than 1,500 mathematicians. Indexes are alphabetical and chronological with additional features such as a time line and a separate index of female mathematicians.

Includes biographies of varying lengths. Some, such as the biography of Clara Barton, include lists of resources for additional information as well as a list of works cited.

Profiles of Chicano/Latino and Native American scientists. Organized by scientist’s last name, by scientific subject/discipline, by ethnicity, and by women scientists.

Biographical information, personal essays, and videos by and about women at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Includes biographical profiles as well as historical essays, digitized artifacts, and relevant data.

A Research Guide from the Library of Congress, this site provides links to selected books, journal articles, historical works, and other resources on women in science.