Biography resources for students

Thousands of Reliable Full-Text Biographies

Biography Reference Source provides superior coverage for several of the most popular and heavily researched biographies and genres, including those contained within Biography Today and Biography (both dating back to the first issue published).

Sources Include

• Biography Today's complete collection
• Biography's complete collection
• Congressional biographies from the American Reference Library
• Biographies from Encyclopædia Britannica
• Harvard University Press: Notable American Women, a Biographical Dictionary
  •

  Biographical Resources

  The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library collect extensively in the field of biography and autobiography; the collections in this area represent nearly every historical period, geographical area, and occupation and vocation.

  Introduction to the Collections

  The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library collect extensively in the field of biography and autobiography; the collections in this area represent nearly every historical period, geographical area, and occupational affiliation. 

  The Reading Rooms of the General Research Division house most of the major biographical reference sources, many of which are found on the open shelves. These include indexes and guides to biographical material as well as biographical dictionaries, works of collective biography (concerned with groups of individuals, often arranged by nationality or vocation), and a selection of biographies of notable individuals.

  Users are welcome to browse this collection of reference materials, located in the Rose Main Reading Room.
  
  The vast majority of the Library'

  •

  Finding Biographical Information

  General

  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 biog