Director of the Liaison Program
Research & Engagement
Historical Biographical Resources
You can use OneSearch to find biographical sources on historical figures in radio and television. You can do a keyword search for the name of the person, but a more focused way to search for biographical sources is to choose "Library Catalog" at the top of the search page, choose "Subject" from the drop down list, and then put the name of the person in the search box in this format "LastName, FirstName" (ex. "Edison, Thomas"). The results will be all the materials we have in the library that are categorized with that person's subject heading.
You can use the following databases to find encyclopedia articles or biographical dictionary articles on your historical figure.
- Credo This link opens in a new window
Provides access to authoritative content from subject encyclopedias and handbooks covering every major subject.
- American national biography online This link opens in a new window
Discover biographies of more than 19,000 men and women — from all eras and walks of life — whose lives have shaped American history and culture.
- Oxford dictionary of national biography This link opens in a new windowProvides authoritative biographies of deceased individuals who influenced British history, including colonial British-Americans. Biographies include a listing of major works written by the individual (if any) and a reference list of full-length biographies and critical articles. Each biography also includes a "Reputation" section which describes the individual's standing in his or her time period and how that has changed since then. Very helpfully will indicate where the individual's archives are, if they exist. Also provides links to major themed articles (on the American Founding Fathers, for instance), entries to related individuals, and to other online resources produced by Oxford University Press (which we may or may not have access to). Oxford University Press.
- Gale In Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides full-text access to a variety of news and reference sources containing the biographies of individuals from all time periods.
Historical Journal Articles
- Historical abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides abstracts to scholarly journal articles, conference papers, dissertations, books and book reviews in history for all countries except the United States and Canada.
- America: history and life This link opens in a new window
Scholarly and peer reviewed articles on the history of the United States and Canada.
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