Finding biographies

“The biographer…is simply an historian”, Hans Renders stated.(1) Reading a narrative study on a person's life within a historical context remains popular with a wide audience. But before writing a biography, one must first find the historical protagonist. Recently, two databases with short biographies were added to our history collections: Biography Index Past and Present and Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon. In this post, I will unfold, how to find biographies in the UvA collection and give an overview of databases that offer short biographies of people per country. 

Finding biographies in CataloguePlus
After a search in CataloguePlus on for instance a topic and period. Then:

• go to TWEAK YOUR RESULTS on the right,
• choose Form/Genre >>> biographies, 
• and choose APPLY FILTERS.

Biographical databases at the UvA
Encyclopedias are interesting resources to explore when writing about a historical individual(s). The library offers several databases with short biographies from different areas and periods. 
   

 General

• Biography Index past & present: 1946-present
  800,000 References to biographical data from dictionaries, (auto)biographies, journals, bibliographies and other printed resources. The individuals concerned are from all disciplines and nationalities, from classical antiquity to the present.
• World Biographical Information System Online
  Biographical information on over 6 Million people from the 8th century B.C. to the present. Included are 8.5 Million digital facsimile articles from biographical reference works.

    Netherlands

• Biografisch Portaal van Nederland
  Well-known and unknown Dutch individuals in the Netherlands throughout history. 
• Biografisch woordenboek van Nederland
  Brief biographies of key individuals in the Netherlands or overseas Dutch territories (1850-2000) 
• Database Joods biografisch woordenboek
  Jews in the Netherlands during the 20th Century, including Jews from Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and the Dutch East Indies.
• Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland
  Biographies on about 2.000 women in the Netherlands and its overseas territories, from antiquity to the present. 

    Other European Countries

• BeNeLux - Biografisch Archief from Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg
• Italy - Dizionario biografico degli Italiani
• Austria - Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon, 1815-1950.

    United Kingdom

• Oxford dictionary of national biography
  Database with over 60,000 biographies of those who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest periods to 2012. It also includes over 11,000 portrait illustrations and 250 podcasts.

Other Links

• Blog post: Biografieën premiers van Nederland
• Blog post: New database: Oxford encyclopedia of African History 
• Databases UvA

note

(1) H. Renders, "The biographical method". In: H. Renders and B. de Haan (Eds.),Theoretical discussions of biography: Approaches from history, microhistory, and life writing (Leiden 2014) 226.; D.R. Meister, “The Biographical Turn and the Case for Historical Biography.” History Compass 16 (2018) 7. 

Photo: WvdB at PC Hoofthuis