Who is the Oxford DNB for?

Everyone!

School teachers and students

• Detailed biographies of people from all walks of life let you explore historical events through the lives of the people involved: explore the First World War through the lives of the officers and men, war poets, medical staff and politicians; find quick answers to complicated questions with the extensive online search facilities—which Britons have won Olympic Golds? Which women MPs entered the House of Commons in the 1930s? More in Learning Resources

Researchers, librarians, and archivists

• Oxford DNB is the first place to look for all library users researching the nation's past—whether checking facts, discovering new people, or researching historical themes. More in Library Resources

Local historians

• Online searching locates people who were born, educated, lived or died in a particular place. Search by town, village, street, institution or school to find dictionary subjects who studied at Edinburgh University in the seventeenth century; or are buried in Highgate Cemetery. More on local history searches

Family historians

• Entries include information drawn from subjects' birth, marriage, and death certificates, plus extensive primary research for earlier periods. Many biographies also include details of subjects' parents, spouses, children, and other leading family members. Family articles show the contribution made in many areas of British history by influential families and include the d'Abenon family, leading Surrey landowners between 1100 and 1400; and the Colman family, nineteenth-century mustard manufacturers.

Reading groups and book lovers

• Concise and authoritative entries on all the great writers, from the middle ages to the 21st century; plus the life stories of famous names who appear in contemporary fiction. More for book lovers.

Writers and general readers

• All life is here! With more than 57,000 people to choose from, the Oxford DNB contains stories of courage, malice, romance, dedication, ambition, and comedy on every page.
  • Discover those who experienced a whirlwind romance or whose lives changed with a chance encounter.
  • Find out which Irish bishop was also an accomplished boomerang thrower ...
  • and who kept his hats safe by writing 'Not Yours' in the brim?

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