Biographies

Home page for K12 students using the University of Minnesota Libraries for History Day research.

Full Text Biographic Information

Provides biographical information on the most important figures in American environmentalism. Includes men and women who have made a significant contribution to environmental issues over the last 200 years.

American Men and Women of Science is a biographical dictionary of the significant players in the physical, biological, and related sciences. Each edition includes biographical entries on approximately 120,000 living scientists, providing birthdate; birthplace; field of specialty; education; honorary degrees; current position; professional and career information; awards; memberships; research information; and addresses for each entrant where available. This resource is part of the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

The American National Biography offers portraits of more than 17,400 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the nation.

Read the journal Biography through Project Muse. From the site: For over twenty years, Biography has been an important forum for well-considered biographical scholarship. It features stimulating articles that explore the theoretical, generic, historical and cultural dimensions of life-writing; and the integration of literature, history, the arts, and the social sciences as they relate to biography.

Produced by S9 Technologies, this website allows you to search its 30,000 biographical sketches of celebrated men and women worldwide. Searching the biographical dictionary is a snap--if you don't know the full name of the person you're search for, just type in the information you do have in the search boxes. Although some entries are fairly descriptive, others give little more than a complete name, occupation and birth and death dates.

Search for information on members of the US Congress from 1774 to the present by entering a name, position or state.

Illuminates the lives of the most influential and controversial figures in the Middle East and North Africa who came to prominence during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Includes profiles of contemporary leaders who belong to various political, ethnic, and religious groups, as well as notable individuals associated with business, law, science, social issues, sports, entertainment, literature, and the fine and performing arts.

(Please note: this resource only allows four (4) simultaneous users. If you are denied access, please try again later)
Biography Reference Bank combines the complete content of Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated with the complete and enhanced content of Biography Index Plus. Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated contains more than 95,000 biographies and obituaries and more than 26,000 photographs of the subjects. Biography Index Plus is a bibliographic database that cites biographical material appearing in periodicals indexed in other Wilson Company databases and additional selected periodicals, current books of individual and collective biography, and incidental biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books.

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.

A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 100,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world. Please note: our license only allows for one simultaneous user. If you are denied access please try again later.

2008-present. Featuring comprehensive literary biographies written by recognized literary scholars and critics, you'll find profiles of past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights. The biographies discuss the lives and careers of the literary figures profiled, along with the critical response to their works. Additionally, you can search for essays on publishing houses and literary topics.

This dictionary contains more than 20,000 brief biographical entries on women, including thousands of entries on non-U.S. figures.

This metasite from IPL lists many biographical sites that are freely available on the web.

The Internet Public Library is a project from the University of Michican School of Information, and offers a staggering amount of well-organized information sources, including reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopedias), subject collections from all areas of knowledge, and special collections (including literary criticism, Presidents of the United States, Native American authors and more).

LexisNexis Academic is a collection of online databases: News, Business (plus corporate news and corporate financials), Legal, Medical, and Reference. International news sources are included. Need some Lexis-Nexis searching help? Try our guided exercise on Searching LexisNexis Academic.

Features comprehensive profiles on 1.2 million of the most accomplished individuals from all fields including: government, business, science and technology, the arts, entertainment,sports and more.

When complete, the database will represent the largest compilation ever created of biographical information on indigenous peoples from all areas of North America. Including biographies, autobiographies, oral histories, reference works, manuscripts, and photographs, the database presents the life stories of American Indians and Canadian First Peoples in their own words and through the words of others. Much of the material is previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find. New and current full-length biographies include works on Quanah Parker, Dennis Banks, Susan La Flesche Picotte, Cochise, Jim Thorpe, Crowfoot, Peter Pitchlynn, Sacajawea, Geronimo, Hosteen Klah, Black Elk, Pocahontas, George Washington Grayson, Standing Buffalo, and many more. More than twenty volumes covering chiefs of various nations are now included, as well as a modern edition of the collected speeches of Sitting Bull. The Center for Indigenous Arts & Cultures' five-volume encyclopedia on American Indian Artists has been added ("American Indian Art Series"), and the recent publication, American Indian Biographies (Salem Press, 2005) also adds many contemporary names to the collection.

Find biographical information on people from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture. You'll find profiles of more than 18,000 men and women from all walks of American life, from the well-known to the infamous to the obscure.

This reference work provides 50,000 specially-written signed biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of the British past, from the earliest times to the end of the year 2000.

This resource brings together 100 language and subject dictionaries and reference works - containing well over 60,000 pages - into a single cross-searchable resource.

Indexes to Biographical Information in Reference Books & Magazines

A comprehensive index to more than 12 million biographical sketches in more than 3,400 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering over 4 million contemporary and historical figures throughout the world. Please note: BGMI allows only one U of M - TC user at a time. If you are denied access, please wait 15 minutes and try again.

The Libraries' subscription to World Biographical Information System (WBIS) Online has been cancelled. Other recommended sources for biographical data can be found on our Biographies page: http://www.lib.umn.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page_id=685

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