Biographical Sources

Online Sources

American National Biography

American National Biography offers portraits of more than 17,400 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life. The online edition is updated quarterly, with hundreds of new entries each year and revisions of previously published entries to enhance their accuracy and currency. The ANB Online also features thousands of illustrations, more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references and links to select web sites.

Biography Index

Biography index cites biographical material appearing in more than 3,000 periodicals indexed in other Wilson databases and additional selected periodicals, some 2,500 current books (annually) of individual and collective biography, and incidental biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books. Periodicals indexed are selected from all subject areas represented by other Wilson databases. Biographical subjects indexed range from antiquity to the present and represent all fields and nationalities. Coverage begins in 1984.

Biography Resource Center

The Biography Resource Center (BioRC) is a comprehensive database of biographical information throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. It combines more than 245,000 biographies from sources such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Newsmakers, Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Contemporary Musicians, Historic World Leaders, Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, Contemporary Black Biography, Religious Leaders of America, International Dictionary of Art and Artists, Writers Directory; with full-text articles from nearly 250 periodicals including American History, The Christian Century, Saturday Night, U.S. News & World Report.

Directory of American Scholars

Provides a comprehensive perspective on several segments of the American scholarly community, including current biographies of more than 24,000 scholars in the humanities (history, English, speech, drama, foreign languages, linguistics, philology, philosophy, and religion), law, and the social sciences. Each entry includes the following information: vital statistics, education, honorary degrees and awards, past and present professional experience, memberships, publications, and mailing address.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The premier source for biographical information on persons connected with the British Isles from all periods of history. The qualifications for inclusion are that subjects not be living, that they inhabited or were connected with the British Isles, and that they were noteworthy. The noteworthy and influential element in a subject's life may range from the great and good to the popular, philanthropic, pioneering, scientific, social, curious, or criminal. Building on the work originally incorporated in the Dictionary of National Biography all of whose entries were revised or rewritten for this work -- the Oxford DNB contains 50,000 biographies and 10,000 images of men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.

World Biographical Index (WBI)

The World Biographical Index is a good first step for locating very basic information about people from North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, through the beginning of the 20th century. It is essentially an index to over 3000 biographical reference works. It contains over one million entries. You may search for people whose name you know, or you may search, for example, for women performing artists from the seventeenth century. Yale's Microfiche sets are housed in the SML Main Reference Room Annex.

Print sources

Contemporaries of Erasmus : a biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation. Edited by Pieter G. Bietenholz. Toronto; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c1985-1987.

Call number: SML, Reference, PA8500 1974 Suppl.

Intended to accompany Collected works of Erasmus (Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1974).

Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Publié sous la direction de Richard Goulet. Paris : Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1989. (In progress)

Call number: Divinity, Stack Reference, B112 D52 1989

Also: Classics, B112 D52 1989

A comprehensive biographical encyclopedia of philosophers from the beginnings until about the 6th century CE. Signed articles range in length from a paragraph to over 100 pages (e.g., Aristotle). Most include dates, citations to articles in Pauly-Wissowa, a biographical sketch with numerous citations to both ancient and modern sources, a list of works with standard editions and translations and textual histories, and a discussion of the subject's philosophy and influence. Name, Greek word, and subject indices in each volume.

Directory of American philosophers. Bowling Green, Ohio, Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green State University [etc.], 1962/63- .

Call number: SML, Stacks, B35 D57 (latest edition in Reference)

An alphabetical listing of faculty members at institutions in the United States and Canada.

Dizionario dei filosofi del Novecento. [Firenze} : L.S. Olschki, [1985].

Call number: SML, Stacks, B804 D59 1985 (LC)

Some 1,500 unsigned biographical sketches of philosophers and scholars and authors in other fields (mathematics, religion, literature, political science, history, history, and linguistics) who have drawn on or influenced 20th-century philosophy. Emphasizes Europe and America; a portion of the entries are taken from the Enciclopedia filosofia. Some bibliographical references.

International directory of philosophy and philosophers. Bowling Green, Ohio [etc.] Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green University, c1965-

Call number: SML, B35 +I58 (Latest edition in Reference)
Part 1 is a list of international philosophical organizations; part 2 lists colleges, universities, institutes, research centers, associations, societies, journals and publishers. Published with the aid of UNESCO.

Kersey, Ethel M. Women philosophers : a bio-critical sourcebook. New York : Greenwood, 1989.

Call number: SML, Reference, B105 W6 K47 1989 (LC)

Approximately 150 biographical sketches and articles on women who have "seriously thought or written in the traditional fields of philosophy, including metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and logic." (Preface) Entries contain primary and secondary bibliographies, and the lengthy introductory essay provides an overview of women in the history of philosophy and a general bibliography. The appendix consists of an alphabetical table of women, indicating their countries, dates, and disciplines. Personal name index.

Metzler Philosophen Lexikon : dreihundert biographisch-werkgeschichtliche Portraets von den Vorsokratikern bis zu den Neuen Philosophen. Edited by Christel Dehlinger et al.

Call number: SML, Stacks, B104 M48X 1989 (LC)

Consists of 268 signed biographical essays, each of which includes a portrait or photograph and short bibliography. Arranged alphabetically, with name index.

Other Library Resources

Yale University Library Research Guide in Philosophy
Comments and questions to Anne Oechtering
Prepared by David L. Eastman
Illustration from René Descartes' Principia Philosophiæ, 1677
©2007 Yale University Library