Library Guides: Art and Art History: Biographical and Genealogical Sources

Biographical Sources

Benezit Dictionary of Artists (English Version)
Available online via Oxford Art Online. Biographical dictionary covering painters, sculptors, designers, and graphic artists of Eastern and Western art from 5 BC to the present.
Index to artistic biography
N40.H38 (plus supplements)
Index to references of artists in reference sources.
Who Was Who in American Art
Reference Stacks
N6512.W462.1999
Biographical data on American artists active 1564-1975.
Artists of the American West
Reference Stacks
N6536.D38
Entries for about 1350 artists, born before 1900.
Dictionary of Women Artists
N8354.D53.1997
Short surveys of women and art movements. Biographical entries, including bibliographies, about women artists

Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
A standard art reference resource. Lengthy, scholarly entries describe and define art terms and movements worldwide. Includes biographical information about artists.
Limited to 5 concurrent users
Artists of the World This link opens in a new window
The world's most contemporary, reliable and extensive reference work on artists. It contains authoritative, up-to-date biographical information on more than 1 million artists.
AskART Academic This link opens in a new window
Offers extensive biographical information about American artists as well as book and periodical references, along with International artists' auction records and images. Museums and dealers are also referenced. Access to information about the artists’ biographies, auction records, financial graphics, magazine ads pre-1998, and images.
American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
The national biography for the United States. More than 17,000 biographical sketches for deceased individuals who contributed to shaping the U.S.
African American Biographical Database This link opens in a new window
Brings together in one resource the biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not to be found in any other reference source.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) This link opens in a new window
A collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.
Limited to 10 concurrent users.
Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window
A collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, involving 700 contributors and spanning 9,000 lives.

Dictionary of Art Historians
A biographical and methodological database intended as a beginning point to learning the background of major art historians of western art history. A free, copyrighted, scholarly database for the use of researchers, students and the public.

Genealogical Sources

Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.

Denver Public Library Genealogical & Obituary website

Colorado Biographical Sources

Colorado Portrait and Biography Index: 1931, 1932, 1933, Denver (Bromwell)
Henrietta Bromwell, local historian and genealogist, indexed local, county and regional Colorado histories, newspapers, magazines and early land records from 1859-1933. Around 31,000 entries over 4 volumes and 2 supplements provides information on Coloradans from a wide spectrum of society. This PDF contains the original 4-volume set, but not the appendices.

University of Denver

University Libraries

Research Guides

Art and Art History: Biographical and Genealogical Sources

Biographical Sources

Genealogical Sources

Colorado Biographical Sources