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Gladys Marcus Library | Research Guides | Information Bulletins

Biographical Guide 7/15/08

Prepared by Alicia Estes, Adjunct Instructor, Reference Department

FINDING BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Before starting to research a person, think about the following questions.

What do you know about the person? The more basic information you have the easier it will be to find further information.
How much information do you want to find about the person? Do you just need basic information? Do you want the person's accomplishments set in historical context? Book-length biographies are often the answer for in-depth knowledge of the person, but reference books can provide basic and contextual information.
What is the person's occupation? There are specialized biographical sources for authors and other occupations.
How famous is the person? Famous people are usually easy to find, but less famous people may take some digging. Women and minorities were often less well documented until recently.
Is the person known in relation to a particular country or state? Is the person only locally known?
Is the person living or dead? Let the librarian know if you are looking for an obituary.

The following is a selected list of resources for finding biographical information in major reliable reference sources and on the Web.

SEARCHING StyleCat [Online Catalog] FOR BIOGRAPHIES

The following are two approaches to finding biographies in the FIT Library Catalog, StyleCat [Online Catalog]. Try both methods and compare the results. Remember that neither method will return a list of all the books that will contain biographical information on your subject but it’s a good place to start:

1) In the BASIC SEARCH section select SUBJECT from the drop down menu. Then type in the name of the person you are researching, e.g.:

Christian Dior
Frank Gehry
Madeleine Vionnet

2) If you don’t have a specific name conduct a general search. In the BASIC SEARCH section select SUBJECT from the drop down menu. Type in the search term combinations like the examples below:

e.g.
biography AND fashion designers
biography AND architects
biography AND interior designers
biography AND (businessmen OR businesswomen)

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Biography Index 4th fl. -- Reference Table 5 Z5301 .B5

Current Biography Yearbook 4th fl. -- Reference Table 5 CT100 .C8

Current Biography, cumulated index 1940-1985 4th fl. Reference Table 5 CT100 .C8

International Directory of Business Biographies 4th fl. -- Reference Table 5 HC29 .I57 2005

Newsmakers 4th fl. Reference Table 5 CT120 .C663

Who Was Who in America, with world notables 1607-1985
4th fl. -- Reference Stacks E176 .W64

FASHION DESIGN

American Fashion Designers 4th fl. -- Reference Desk Section A TT505.A1 E4

Contemporary Fashion 4th fl. -- Reference Desk Section A TT505.A1 C66 2002 c.2

Fashion, The Century of the Designer, 1900-1999
4th fl. Reference Desk Section A TT504 .S4413 2000

In an Influential Fashion: an Encyclopedia of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Fashion Designers 4th fl. -- Reference Desk Section A TT505 .A1 I5 2002

Threads of Time: the Fabric of History: Profiles of African American Dressmakers and Designers 4th fl. Reference Desk Section A TT504.4 .R44 2002

Who’s Who in Fashion 4th fl. -- Reference Desk Section A TT505 .A1 S74 2004

Please refer to Information Bulletin #6 Fashion & Costume Designers for additional references. Available on the Digital Library or on the 4th floor of the library.

DESIGN

African American Architects: a Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945
4th fl. -- Reference Stacks NA736 .A47

American Type Design & Designers 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks Z250 .A2 C75 2004

Contemporary Architects 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks NA680 .C625 1994

Contemporary Designers 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks NK1390 .C655 1997

Contemporary European Architects 4th fl. -- Art Reference NA958 .C65 1991

Contemporary Graphic Artists 4th fl. – Reference Stacks NC999.2.C658

Contemporary Japanese Architects 4th fl. -- Art Reference NA1555 .M49 1994

The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
4th fl. -- Reference Stacks NC997 .L54 2003

12 Japanese Masters 4th fl. -- Art Reference NK1484.Z8 S35 2002

Twentieth Century Type Designers 4th fl. -- Art Reference Z250.A2 C364

Please refer to Information Bulletin #8 Architects, Interior & Graphic Designers for additional resources. Available on the Digital Library or on the 4th floor in the library.

MULTICULTURAL SOURCES

African American Art and Artists 4th fl. -- Art Reference N6538.N5 L38 2003

The African American Encyclopedia 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks E185 .A253

African-American Writers: a Dictionary 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks PS153.N5 A3444 2000

Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century 5th fl. -- Main Stacks N6502.5 .L38 1993

Latin American Writers 4th fl. -- Reference Stacks PQ7081.A1 L37

DATABASES

The following e-resources are useful for researching biographical information. Access to the databases is available on the alphabetical list of databases on the FIT Library Digital Library.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
Type a name in the basic search box to retrieve biographical references. Another option is to scroll down the search page and click on the “Arts” or “biographies” section for a list of titles that can be searched separately.

Oxford Art Online
A comprehensive online resource of over 45,000 articles on world-wide visual arts and culture from pre-history to the present, with links to images and further information on museum and other art-related web sites. Search by artist name for biographical information and examples of work.

Hoover’s Online
Click on the “people” tab to search using a person’s name. This database is useful for researching people in the field of business.

InfoTrac One File
Type a name in the “search box” and click on “subject” to search for articles.

Literature Resource Center
Search by author name or in the “authors by type” section. To identify more than one author narrow by select criteria (e.g. ethnicity, genre, theme)

Twayne Authors Series
Select an author’s name from the A-Z list to view a discussion of an author's works and a chronology of the author's life.

Credo Reference
Search by person’s name. Database contains the following biographical resources:
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, Debrett's People of Today, the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, the Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography, The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women

Wall Street Journal
The advanced searching feature allows searching by a person’s name.

USEFUL WEBSITES

General

InfoPlease
http://www.infoplease.com/people.html

PBS Biographies
http://www.pbs.org/history/history_biographies.html

Fashion

Infomat (Biographies of Fashion Designers)
http://www.infomat.com/whoswho/

InfoPlease (Fashion)
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/1fashbio.html

Performing Arts

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
http://www.imdb.com/

PBS Jazz
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/

Art & Literature

the-artists
http://www.the-artists.org/
Major modern & contemporary visual artists

Design Showroom
http://www.r20thcentury.com/bios/frame.cfm

Infoplease (Architects)
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/architects.html

Voices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of Color
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/