Oxford DNB September 2014 update: 120 biographies added

News from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ODNB

“This is the 30th update to the online edition since ‘first’ publication in September 2004 and marks our 10th anniversary.

The update adds biographies of 120 people from prehistory to the 21st century and takes as its main theme people whose lives illustrate aspects of national character, heritage, and manners. They include, for example, Cecil Chubb (1876-1934), the last private owner of Stonehenge, who gave the site to the nation in 1918; John Blanke, the African-born trumpeter who served in the courts of Henry VII and VIII; Arabella Churchill (1949-2007) co-founder of the Glastonbury Festival; Norman Wilkinson (1878-1971) artist and inventor of ‘dazzle’ camouflage in WWI; and Theoderic Rood (fl.1480-4), the earliest named printer in Oxford.

We have an open highlights page which offers a selection of lives and a full list.

For the 10th anniversary we are also running a series of items, e.g. blog posts on the ODNB’s online evolution since 2004, listed here.

From next week, the ODNB’s new general editor will be Professor Sir David Cannadine of Princeton. There’s a little more on David’s appointment here.”

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