oxford dictionary of biography

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the national record of over 60,000 men and women who shaped the history of the British Isles and of Britons worldwide, from the ‘earliest times’ to the 21st century.   

The ODNB is the world’s largest collaborative research project in the humanities, providing concise, up-to-date biographies written by 13,000 specialists from 52 countries. In addition to its more than 60,000 biographies, the Dictionary includes more than 500 thematic essays (setting individuals in historical context), and 11,500 portrait likenesses, researched in association with the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Website:  http://www.oxforddnb.com/

• Research Aims

The ODNB was first published in 2004, in 60 print volumes and online. Since 2004 a continuation project has extended and developed the ODNB’s online edition.

Updates are published monthly. Our January update is composed of biographies of people who have died in the very recent past (all people in the ODNB are deceased). Our other monthly updates are gathered around themes of related lives and also extend the Dictionary’s coverage across earlier periods in the light of recent scholarship and publications. Updates also revise existing biographies in response to new research. Since 2004 we have added around 5000 biographies and thematic essays.

Dictionary editors also run a programme of public engagement with other national institutions (museums, galleries, the National Trust, English Heritage, and national biographies worldwide), as well as with British public libraries and university research projects in the UK and the United States. The Dictionary's popular podcast series is available on itunes and via our website.

The Oxford DNB is a research and publishing project of the Oxford History Faculty and Oxford University Press. The work of commissioning, editing, writing, updating, and promoting the Dictionary is undertaken by a small team of Oxford historians: Mark Curthoys, Alex May, and Anders Ingram.

The ODNB’s general editor (from October 2014) is Sir David Cannadine who, in his capacity as editor, is also a Visiting Professor in the Oxford History Faculty.

The ODNB have recorded over 250 life stories from the  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) –  Boudicca  to  Bobby Moore ,  Mrs Simpson  to  Mills & Boon .

You can download an individual life or subscribe to their fortnightly biography podcast,  released on iTunes as ‘Oxford Biographies’ . Each episode lasts between 10 and 30 minutes.

Elizabeth Parsons, the Cock Lane Ghost (1749–1807), imposter

Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960), suffragette

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-54), artists

Odo of Bayeux (d. 1097), commissioner of the Bayeux Tapestry

Jack Sheppard (1702-1724), thief and prison-breaker

Alice Liddell (1852-1934), the real-life in Alice in Wonderland

Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), historian and political writer

Margaret Roper (1505-1544), scholar and daughter of Thomas More

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Principal Investigator / Director:  Philip Carter

Oxford participants:  Philip Carter

Other Participants:  not specified

Project Webpage:  http://www.oxforddnb.com/

Start Date:  September 2004

End Date:  not specified

Funder:  not specified

Partner organizations (inside or outside Oxford):  not specified

Project Description:

The  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography  ( www.oxforddnb.com/ )   is the national record of 60,000 men and women who shaped the history of the British Isles and of Britons worldwide, from the Roman occupation to the 21 st  century.    

The ODNB is the world’s largest collaborative research project in the humanities, providing concise, up-to-date biographies written by 14,000 specialists overseen by a small team of academic editors at Oxford's History Faculty. In addition to 60,000 biographies, the Dictionary includes more than 500 thematic essays (setting individuals in historical context), and 11,500 portrait likenesses, researched in association with the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The ODNB was first published in 2004, in 60 print volumes and online. Regular updates have since have added a further 5000 biographies and thematic essays. Roughly half of these new biographies are of people from the very recent past who died (all people in the ODNB are deceased) in the 21 st  century. Other biographies extend the Dictionary’s coverage across earlier periods in the light of recent scholarship and publications. Updates also revise existing biographies in response to new research.

Dictionary editors also run a programme of public engagement and data linking with other national institutions (museums, galleries, the National Trust, and national biographies worldwide), as well as with research libraries and university research projects in the UK and the United States.

Other projects the participants have been involved in:

• HUMANITIES DIVISION
• --Faculty of History
• OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
• --Text analysis
• --Visualisation
• --Textual input
• --Publishing

PI / Main contact

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online.

• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 , the original 63 volumes, published between 1885 and 1900. These biographies use the suffix DNB00.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement , first supplement of 3 volumes, published 1901; outlined in a prefatory note . These articles use the suffix DNB01. With Queen Victoria's death, 22 January 1901, this era came to a close.
• Dictionary of National Biography, Index and Epitome , published 1903 as one volume, provided condensed versions of all previous DNB biographies.
• Dictionary of National Biography, Errata , published 1904 in a single volume. These corrections are being incorporated into applicable DNB00 and DNB01 articles.
• Dictionary of National Biography re-issued nearly every article from the 66 volumes contained in the original and first supplement. This reissue, contained in 22 volumes, occurred between 1908 and 1909, and incorporated the 1904 Errata.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement , published 1912 in three volumes, includes articles from those who died between 1901 and 1911. These articles use the suffix DNB12.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement , published 1927 in one volume, includes articles from those who died between 1912 and 1921.

The 1912 Index was the last version of the DNB from the original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. Subsequent versions were published by Oxford University Press.

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Biographies of those who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century. 

Additional Information:

Online version of the 60-volume print Oxford DNB, published September, 2004, a major revision of the original Dictionary of National Biography and its supplements. Since 2005 regular updates have extended the Dictionary’s coverage, now including biographies of more than 60,000 people who died in or before the year 2016.

Coverage: 300 BCE to present - Updates vary

Vendor: Oxford University Press

Producer: Oxford University Press

Interlibrary Loan Type: Not Permitted

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Definition of biography noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• Boswell’s biography of Johnson
• a biography by Antonia Fraser
• The book gives potted biographies of all the major painters.
• blockbuster
• unauthorized
• biography by
• biography of

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Sean Connery among new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries

John Le Carre, Dame Diana Rigg, Dame Barbara Windsor and Monty Python troupe member Terry Jones are also mentioned in the new edition.

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Scottish actor Sir Sean Connery and English singer Dame Vera Lynn are among the new entrants in the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography’s latest update.

The biographies of 276 people, who left their mark on the UK and also died in the year 2020, have been added to the reference collection.

Spy writer John Le Carre, Nobel Peace prize winner John Hume, former footballer Jack Charlton, actresses Dame Diana Rigg and Dame Barbara Windsor and Monty Python troupe member Terry Jones are also among those featured in the new edition.

Sir Sean’s entry says he “left school at 13, taking a succession of labouring jobs, joining the Royal Navy, and winning a bronze medal in the Mr Universe contest before finding his metier as an actor”.

After becoming the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen in Dr No, it says he was “determined not to be typecast” and was a “proud Scotsman, he started the Scottish International Investment Trust and was a long-time supporter of the Scottish National Party”.

Sir Sean won an Oscar, two Baftas and three Golden Globes during his career – and died in October 2020 at the age of 90.

The dictionary book also highlights his Goldfinger co-star Honor Blackman, who it says “refused honours herself” as a “republican” and criticised Sir Sean for accepting the knighthood for services to film drama in 2000.

Other stars named include British director Sir Alan Parker, travel writer Jan Morris and entertainer Des O’Connor.

The biography entry for Dame Vera states that she was a “child star” and graduate of “East End working men’s clubs and Madame Harris’s Kracker Kabaret Kids” who had been fairly well known before the break out of the Second World War.

It says due to the war and the songs, We’ll Meet Again and White Cliffs Of Dover, she became a “national icon” and later a “prolific fundraiser” for cancer, cerebral palsy and veterans’ charities – which contributed to her becoming a dame in 2016.

Dame Vera died at the age of 103 in June 2020.

Le Carre – known for the books Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and The Night Manager – is hailed as someone whose “characters and plots were infinitely more complex than Ian Fleming’s, and often highlighted the lying, deceit, deception, and fraud which were at the heart not only of the spy’s profession but also his own life”.

With the real name David Cornwell, he had worked for British intelligence service MI6, his father was jailed for insurance fraud and since Le Carre’s death there has been allegations he had numerous love affairs.

“His later works became more political, and his indignation at Brexit led him to take out Irish citizenship,” the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also says.

Former SDLP leader Mr Hume, who received the Nobel Prize for his work on the Good Friday Agreement, was said to have shown “great personal courage in confronting extremism and in trying to find a peaceful solution to Northern Ireland’s problems” and was placed in the update alongside his ex-deputy Seamus Mallon.

Mr Mallon had died at the age of aged 83, around six months before Mr Hume, who died aged 83 in August 2020.

Also among the political and campaigner figures are Northern Ireland peace advocate Betty Williams, Conservative politician and last secretary of war James Ramsden, former leader of the Social Democrat Party Lord Robert Maclennan of Rogart, ex-Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner Maria Fyfe and Windrush scandal activist Paulette Wilson.

Charlton, who was a member of the 1966 winning World Cup team along with his brother Sir Bobby, and his teammate Nobby Stiles also were entered into the collection.

Motor racing great Sir Stirling Moss and the first British paralympic gold medallist Margaret Maughan also made the sportspeople entries for the updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The April 2024 edition includes biographies of 65,230 individuals, written by more than 14,000 contributors and is promoted as the “national record of people who have shaped British history”.

The new entries in the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography are available online from Tuesday.

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Sean Connery among new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries

S cottish actor Sir Sean Connery and English singer Dame Vera Lynn are among the new entrants in the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography’s latest update.

The biographies of 276 people, who left their mark on the UK and also died in the year 2020, have been added to the reference collection.

Spy writer John Le Carre, Nobel Peace prize winner John Hume, former footballer Jack Charlton, actresses Dame Diana Rigg and Dame Barbara Windsor and Monty Python troupe member Terry Jones are also among those featured in the new edition.

Sir Sean’s entry says he “left school at 13, taking a succession of labouring jobs, joining the Royal Navy, and winning a bronze medal in the Mr Universe contest before finding his metier as an actor”.

After becoming the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen in Dr No, it says he was “determined not to be typecast” and was a “proud Scotsman, he started the Scottish International Investment Trust and was a long-time supporter of the Scottish National Party”.

Sir Sean won an Oscar, two Baftas and three Golden Globes during his career – and died in October 2020 at the age of 90.

The dictionary book also highlights his Goldfinger co-star Honor Blackman, who it says “refused honours herself” as a “republican” and criticised Sir Sean for accepting the knighthood for services to film drama in 2000.

Other stars named include British director Sir Alan Parker, travel writer Jan Morris and entertainer Des O’Connor.

The biography entry for Dame Vera states that she was a “child star” and graduate of “East End working men’s clubs and Madame Harris’s Kracker Kabaret Kids” who had been fairly well known before the break out of the Second World War.

It says due to the war and the songs, We’ll Meet Again and White Cliffs Of Dover, she became a “national icon” and later a “prolific fundraiser” for cancer, cerebral palsy and veterans’ charities – which contributed to her becoming a dame in 2016.

Dame Vera died at the age of 103 in June 2020.

Le Carre – known for the books Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and The Night Manager – is hailed as someone whose “characters and plots were infinitely more complex than Ian Fleming’s, and often highlighted the lying, deceit, deception, and fraud which were at the heart not only of the spy’s profession but also his own life”.

With the real name David Cornwell, he had worked for British intelligence service MI6, his father was jailed for insurance fraud and since Le Carre’s death there has been allegations he had numerous love affairs.

“His later works became more political, and his indignation at Brexit led him to take out Irish citizenship,” the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also says.

Former SDLP leader Mr Hume, who received the Nobel Prize for his work on the Good Friday Agreement, was said to have shown “great personal courage in confronting extremism and in trying to find a peaceful solution to Northern Ireland’s problems” and was placed in the update alongside his ex-deputy Seamus Mallon.

Mr Mallon had died at the age of aged 83, around six months before Mr Hume, who died aged 83 in August 2020.

Also among the political and campaigner figures are Northern Ireland peace advocate Betty Williams, Conservative politician and last secretary of war James Ramsden, former leader of the Social Democrat Party Lord Robert Maclennan of Rogart, ex-Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner Maria Fyfe and Windrush scandal activist Paulette Wilson.

Charlton, who was a member of the 1966 winning World Cup team along with his brother Sir Bobby, and his teammate Nobby Stiles also were entered into the collection.

Motor racing great Sir Stirling Moss and the first British paralympic gold medallist Margaret Maughan also made the sportspeople entries for the updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The April 2024 edition includes biographies of 65,230 individuals, written by more than 14,000 contributors and is promoted as the “national record of people who have shaped British history”.

The new entries in the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography are available online from Tuesday.

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