Dictionary of National Biography

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The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) has 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond from the earliest times up to the year 2002.

• 50,000 people
• 2,400 years of history
• 10,000 illustrations
• people from the 4th-century BC Greek explorer Pytheas to Princess Diana, and from the founding fathers of America to the Nawabs of Bengal.

What else?

You can get access to the complete text of the first 33 volumes of the DNB by searching using the archive button on the left of the page. You could search for the current article on Oscar Wilde and compare it with the original one written in 1901.

You can also

• get articles on families and groups - from British leaders in Roman Britain to the Busby Babes
• use quicksearch if you know exactly who you are looking for.
• get a life a day by email.

or explore by theme

• UK Prime ministers
• saints
• governors-general and viceroys of India
• monarchs of Scotland
• musical chart-toppers
• poets laureate
• Oscar winners
• Nobel prize winners
• Olympic title holders and many more!

Browse by birth date, by death date or alphabetically.

Cross reference - there are millions of cross-references within the text of the DNB (in blue type) but, using the Highlight Search, you can make up your own cross references. Simply highlight any name or word in an article, click the GO button next to the Quick Search box (having chosen person or full text), and the DNB will perform a search across the database on the selected text.

Want more?

Download a tour or if you get stuck anywhere on the site help is available on every page......It's a perfect ten!

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