Encylcopedias

  • Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Charles Coulston Gillispie, editor-in-chief. New York: Scribner [1970-1980], 16 v. illus. 29 cm. Vol. 15 is a Supplement, vol. 16 the very detailed Index. There are two supplementary volumes. There is a second edition. Both editions are available electronically in some libraries. This is the very best place to find information about deceased scientists. 

  • Biographical Dictionary of Mathematicians: Reference Biographies from the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Scribner; Toronto: Collier Macmillan Canada; New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, c1991. 4 v. (vii, 2696 p.) : ill. ; 29 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Listing of mathematicians by branch. Chronology. Index. ISBN 0684192829 (set). This is a subset of the above.

  • The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. Cambridge, Eng., New York, At the University press, 1910-11. 29 v. illus., plates (partly col.) ports., maps, diagrs. 30 cm. This edition, "The scholars edition," has been listed rather than the current one as it is more interesting.

  • The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Paul Edwards, editor in chief. New York: Macmillan [1967]. 8 v. 29 cm.

  • Dictionary of American Biography, under the editorship of Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1937-1944. 21 v. ; 26 cm. "No living persons ... have biographies in the Dictionary ... [and] no persons who ... [have] not lived in the territory now known as the United States."---Introd., v. 1, p. vii.

    Return to the minicourse home page.
    If you have comments, send email to V. Frederick Rickey at fred-rickey@usma.edu .
    Posted 29 December 1996. Revised December 23, 2008.