Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/DNB scans

This page belongs to the "missing articles" project based on the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). Summary of this page: the DNB project is not in the fortunate position of projects such as the EB 1911 of having the text freely available. This is a reference page explaining where the resources are for quarrying out articles, if Wikisource (first port of call) does not yet have them.

Finding text

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Text from the DNB is quite widely available, but (unfortunately for the project), in a patchy way. It is not yet conveniently in one place, though the Wikisource DNB project will eventually take care of that. There is a choice of djvu images, plain text scans and PDFs. Some whole articles are certainly online, in a sporadic way; and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) online version comes with the "old" version. Note that this "old" version may be a revision c.1930, and not the original, and so may not be public domain. The safe way is always to reconstruct the original over at Wikisource, whatever you start with, and then import here.

There are (at least) two main sources of DNB on the web:

  • The Oxford DNB website provides the DNB entry for all ONDB entries which originally were in the DNB. The link to the DNB entry is found to the left of the ONDB entry, under the link " DNB archive". (You must be logged into the ODNB to see the full content. Members of UK libraries almost invariably can log in using their library membership.)[1]
  • Page scans at Wikisource.

Page scans at Wikisource

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All 63 volumes of the original DNB are available at Wikisource. They are currently available as page images (pictures) and often as OCR editable text. Each scan index page points to the web source at Archive.org (or elsewhere), where other OCR software may have been more successful in converting the pages. Navigate to the Wikisource DNB main page, and thence to the appropriate volume page. Each volume page has an "access to sources" link that provides some guidance.

Scans of the text

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There are over 100 URLs relevant to downloading scans of the DNB, apparently from three main sources (Google = G, Toronto, Hyderabad). The scans are highly variable in quality (not kidding about that). Multiple sources for a text are therefore very useful. As a rule of thumb Toronto scans are superior to Google scans.

The links are to archive.org pages offering plain text, PDF and other options, and to Wikisource index pages.

1885

1886

1887

1888

1889

1890

1891

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896


1897

1898

1899

1900


1901

1904

Google Books

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In addition, Google Book Search provides volumes, but seems to limit the availability of the full view book to US web users.

Volume
Names
1
Abbadie - Anne Not Available
2
Annesley - Baird
3
Baker - Beadon
4
Beal - Biber
5
Bicheno - Bottasham
6
Bottomley - Browell
7
Brown - Burthogge
8
Burton - Cantwell
9
Canute - Chaloner Not Available
10
Chamber - Clarkson Not Available
11
Clater - Condell
12
Condor - Craigie
13
Craik - Damer
14
Damon - D'Eyncourt
15
Diamond - Drake
16
Drant - Edridge
17
Edward - Erskine (poor OCR scan)
18
Esdale - Finan Not Available
19
Finch - Forman
20
Forrest - Garner
21
Garnett - Gloucester
22
Glover - Gravet
23
Gray - Haighton
24
Hailes - Harriott
25
Harris - Henry I
26
Henry II - Hindley Not Available
27
Hindmarsh - Hovenden Not Available
28
Howard - Inglethorpe
29
Inglish - John
30
Johnes - Kenneth Not Available
31
Kennett - Lambert Not Available
32
Lambe - Leigh
33
Leichton - Lluelyn Not Available
34
Llywd - MacCartney Not Available
35
MacCarwell - Maltby Not Available
36
Malthus - Mason
37
Masquerier - Millyng
38
Milman - More
39
Morehead - Myles
40
Mylar - Nicholls
41
Nichols - O'Dugan
42
O'Duinn - Owen Not Available
43
Owens - Passelene
44
Paston - Percy
45
Pereira - Pockrich
46
Pocock - Puckering
47
Puckle - Reidfurd
48
Reilly - Robins
49
Robinson - Russell
50
Russen - Scobell
51
Scoffin - Sheares Not Available
52
Shearman - Smirke Not Available
53
Smith - Stanger Not Available
54
Stanhope - Stovin
55
Stow - Taylor
56
Teach - Tollet
57
Tom - Tytler
58
Ubaldini - Wakefield
59
Wakeman - Watkins
60
Watson - Whewell
61
Whichcord - Williams
62
Williamson - Worden
63
Wordsworth - Zuylestein
1904
Errata
first supplement, vol. 1
first supplement, vol. 2
first supplement, vol. 3
1901-1911 second supplement, vol. 1,
1901-1911 second supplement, vol. 2
1912-1921 third supplement not available
1922-1930 fourth supplement
1931-1940 fifth supplement

Notes

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  1. ^ While this is going to be a useful starting point, there is the snag that editorial changes between the first edition of the DNB and the version posted there may mean that this text is not really public domain. You can't know what the position is without checking against the original.