Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Resources/Fully accessible biographical dictionaries

This is a list of biographical dictionaries accessible in full over the internet. It is primarily intended to assist those creating or expanding biographies of women on Wikipedia. Additions are welcome but must be fully accessible without restriction to all editors of Wikipedia. Other useful biographical dictionaries which are not fully accessible may be added to Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Resources.

General biographical dictionaries

International

• A Brief Biographical Dictionary, 1866, Charles Hole (list of names, occupations and dates)
• Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, 1912, ed. David Patrick and Francis Hindes Groome
• Dictionary of African Biography, OUP, 2012, eds. Henry Louis Gates, Emmanuel Akyeampong, and Steven J. Niven
• Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography, OUP, 2016, eds. Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Eastern Europe

• Prominent Personalities in the USSR, Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press (1968)
• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, 2010, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Middle East

• Encyclopædia Iranica, covers Iranians in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and India

By country

Australia

• Australian Biographical Dictionary, ongoing, National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University

Austria

• Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (Austrian Biographical Lexicon, in German)

Canada

• Dictionary of Canadian Biography, ongoing, over 12,000 entries

Chile

• Diccionario Biográfico de Chile, 1888, Pedro Pablo Figueroa

Croatia

• Hrvatski biografski leksikon (Croatian Biographical Lexicon), ongoing (in Serbo-Croat)

Denmark

• Dansk biografisk Lexikon, 1905, Gyldendal (in Danish)
• Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 1984, part of Gyldendal's Den Store Danske (in Danish)
• Kunstindeks Danmark & Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon, 1998, biographies of Danish artists and architects, including artworks (in Danish)
• Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon, ongoing, KVINFO (in Danish)

Finland

• Biografiskt lexikon för Finland, 2011 (Finnish biographies in Swedish)

France

• Nouvelle Biographie Générale, 1866, Firmin Didot Frères (in French). See Nouvelle Biographie Générale for access to volumes.

Germany

• Neue Deutsche Biographie, ongoing, over 22,000 entries (in German)

Great Britain

• Dictionary of National Biography, 1911, Geroge Smith, Oxford University Press
• Dictionary of Welsh Biography, ongoing. Over 5,000 short biographies.

Hungary

• Magyar Lexikon, (in Hungarian)

India

• The Indian Biographical Dictionary, 1913, ed. C. Hayavadana Rao, Pillar & Co.

Italy

• Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani al Plata, 1899, Barozzi, Baldissini (in Italian)

Netherlands

• Persoonlijkheden in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in woord en beeld, 1938 (in Dutch) (Info at Dutch wiki: nl: Persoonlijkheden in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in woord en beeld)
• "Gedenkschrift bij het 50-jarig bestaan van den Frieschen IJsbond 1886-1936, alsmede iets over hardrijders en hardrijdsters in vroeger en later jaren", Dutch speed skaters until 1936 (in Dutch)

New Zealand

• Te Ara Biographies, ongoing, over 3,000 New Zealand biographies

Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan Biographies: A Resource Book, published by the US State Department in 1988. Public domain.

Norway

• Norsk Biografisk Leksikon, 2005, biographical dictionary in Norwegian (no longer updated)

Peru

• Diccionario historico-biografico del Peru - Parte primera, 1874, Manuel de Mendiburu, Imprenta de J. Francisco Solis

Slovenia

• Slovenska biografija (Slovenian Biography), ongoing (in Slovenian)

Sweden

• Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, 1906, Herman Hofberg (Swedish biographies in Swedish)
• Svensk kvinnobiografiskt lexikon, under development at University of Gothenburg since 2018 (in Swedish and English)

Switzerland

• Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, Dizionario srico della Svizzera, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (Historical Dictionary of Switzerland), ongoing, over 36,000 articles (in German, French and Italian)

United States

• Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1920, Andrew Jenson
• Revised Index to The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1969, H.A. Harvey and Raymond D. McGill, James T. White & Company. Access to the numerous volumes of The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography published between 1891 and 1963. See also The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
• The New People's Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (1889), including List of Contents

By occupation

Art

See also: List of art reference books

• Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 1918, George C. Williamson, G. Bell and Sons. Also Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5.
• Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1913, John Denison Champlin, Charles Scribner's Sons. Also Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4
• A Dictionaru of Artists of the English School, 1878, Samuel Redgrave, George Bell and Sons
• Dictionary of Art Historians, under development, maintained by scholars for the benefit of the public. Associated with the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies of Duke University
• Die deutschen Maler-Radierer des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, 1966, Andreas Andese, Verlag von Rudolph Weigel
• Dictionnaire biographique des artistes français du XIIe au XVIIIe siècle, 1972, A. Bérard (in French)
• Kunstindeks Danmark & Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon, 1994 (in Danish). Searchable database based on "Weilbach, Dansk Kunstnerleksikon". Biographies of almost 8,000 Danish artists and architects

Architecture

• Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940, ongoing

Engineering

• Inspiring Women Engineers, ongoing, over 60 biographies from Society of Women Engineers

Literature

• A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, John W. Cousin, J.M. Dent & Sons
• Dictionnaire des auteurs luxembourgeois, ongoing, Centre national de littérature Mersch (in French)

Mathematics

• Biographies of Women Mathematicians, compiled by Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, Georgia

Music

• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1919, rev. Alfred Remy
• Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886, James D. Brown

Medicine

• A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography, 1912, Howard A. Kelly, W.B. Saunders Company, Vol 2 here
• American Medical Biography, 1920, Howard A. Kelly and Walter L. Burrage, The Norman, Remington Company,

Science

• Biographies of Women in Science from the University of Alabama

Women's biographical dictionaries

International

• A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country, 1804, Mathilda Betham
• Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries de Haan, Francisca; Daskalova, Krasimira; Loutfi, Anna, eds. (2006)
• Collective Biographies of Women by Alison Booth, covering thousands of women of all kinds and eras
• Cyclopedia of Female Biography, Henry Gardiner Adams, 1857; Female Biography; Wikipedia list of redlinks
• Dictionary of African Christian Biography curated database produced since 1995 by the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. (English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili)
• Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Throughout the Ages, ed. Anne Commire, Deborah Klezmer, Gale and Yorkin, 2006. Fully accessible through the Wikipedia Library's bundled services.
• Jewish Women's Archive, ongoing, short profiles of Jewish women
• Some Eminent Women, 1889, Mrs. Henry Fawcett, Macmillan and Co.

By country

Armenia

• Հայ կանայք 19-րդ դարավերջի եւ 20-րդ դարասկզբի հերոսամար- տի տարիներին , (Armenian Women in the Years of Heroic Struggle in the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Centuries) Մինասյան, Էդիկ Գարեգինի; Մինասյան, Տաթեւիկ Էդիկի (2016) (in Armenian)

Australia

• The Australian Women's Register
• The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia

Canada

• Types of Canadian Women, 1903, ed. Henry James Morgan
• Woman's Who's Who of America, 1915, ed. John William Leonard (Canada and US)

Denmark

• Kvinfo biographies, over 1,900 women's biographies in Danish

Great Britain

• The Women of England, their Social Duties and Domestic Habits, 1939, Mrs. Ellis; Fisher, Son, & Co.

Kyrgyzstan

• Кыргызстандын асыл кыздары [Precious/Notable Women of Kyrgyzstan, К. Бектурганова (2006) (in Kyrgyz)

Netherlands

• Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland (Digital Women's Lexicon of the Netherlands), ongoing (in Dutch)
• Vrouwen in de hardrijdersbaan (Women in the speed skating lane), Dutch kortebaan speed skaters

Sweden

• Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexicon: Swedish Biographical Dictionary of Women, 1450 biographies from the Middle Ages to the present day, all accessible in Swedish and English

United States

• American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies, 1897, Frances E. Willard and Mary E. Livermore
• Daughters of Genius, 1888, James Parton, Hubbard Brothers
• Women of Distinction, 1893, L.A. Scruggs; Wikipedia list of redlinks
• A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life, 1893, Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore
• Woman's Who's Who of America, 1915, ed. John William Leonard (US and Canada)
• Briscoe, Johnson (1907–1909). The actors' birthday book. [First]-third series. An authoritative insight into the lives of the men and women of the stage born between January first and December thirty-first. Moffat, Yard and Company – via HathiTrust.

American women by city, state or region

• Notable Women of St. Louis, 1914, Mrs. Chas. P. Johnson
• Representative Women of New England, 1904, ed. Julia Ward Howe, New England Historical Publishing Company
• Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America, 1928, Max Binheim and Charles A Elvin, Publishers Press. Now on Wikisource: *Women of the West

Art

• English Female Artists, 1876, Ellen C. Clayton, Tinsley Brothers. Also Vol 2. See English Female Artists for red links.
• Women Artists in All Ages and Countries, 1859, Mrs. Ellet, Harper & Brothers

Literature

• English Women of Letters, 1862, Julia Kavanagh, Bernhard Tauchnitz
• The Female Poets of America, 1850, Thomas Buchanan Read, E.H. Butler & Co.
• French Women of Letters, 1862, Julia Kavanagh, Bernhard Tauchnitz
• The History of Nordic Women's Literature, over 800 biographies in Danish, English and Swedish, sortable by date of birth or name
• Women and Marxism, Non-Fiction Authors

Music

• Les Femmes Compositeurs de Musique', 1910, translation of Otto Ebel's work, 1902
• Women Composers, 1902, Otto Ebel
• Women in Music, 1890, George P. Upton

See also

• List of biographical dictionaries