UCF Research Guides: Databases: Biographies

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Best Databases for Biographies

Biography and Genealogy Master Index (Gale) This link opens in a new window
UCF ARC Main General Collection -- CT 213 .B53
Identifies 12.7 million biographical sketches in more than 3,400 current and retrospective reference books, covering contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.
"indexes current, readily available reference sources, as well as the most important retrospective works that cover individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world.... BGMI indexes only reference works containing multiple biographies; it does not index periodical articles or books of biography about a single individual. Sources...are of several types:
- Biographical dictionaries and who's whos, which supply information on a number of individuals.
- Subject encyclopedias, which include some biographical entries.
- Volumes of literary criticism, which may contain only a limited amount of biographical information but give critical surveys of a writer's works.
- Indexes, which refer the user to a body of information found elsewhere."
Biography Reference Bank (Wilson) This link opens in a new window
"contains biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images. It contains the full text of the articles from more than 100 volumes of biographical reference books published by H. W. Wilson."
Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
combines Gale biographies with related full-text articles from magazines and newspapers, thousands images, and links to vetted websites.
People included are from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. Search by name, birth and death years and places, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender.
- List of Sources included, such as the Dictionary of American Biography is available on the Gale Support - Title Lists for the database "Gale in Context: Biography"

Other Databases for Biographies

African American Biographical Database CEASED
CEASED and access discontinued as of summer 2023.
Absorbed into Black Studies.
Biographies of over 30,000 African-Americans from Chadwyck-Healey’s acclaimed Black Biographical Dictionaries 1790-1950.
Biography Index (H.W. Wilson) (1946-2010)
[online access cancelled due to budget cuts]
Reference CT 100.B48
"cites biographical articles appearing in any of more than 3,000 periodicals indexed in other Wilson databases, plus select other titles...some 2,000 current books of individual and collective biography are cited each year, as well as biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books."
Biography & Genealogy Master Index identifies entries in Biography Index from the first print volume in 1946 forward.
"Besides biographies and autobiographies, you’ll find citations to interviews, obituaries, collections of letters, diaries, memoirs, juvenile literature, book reviews, bibliographies and exhibition reviews. People covered range from antiquity to the present and represent all fields and nationalities."