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Introductory research guide for history of science and technology : Reference works for history of science & technology

Introductory guide to basic bibliographies, journals, and reference works for history of science and technology

Selected biographical sources

Dictionary of scientific biography [DSB]. Available in both print (Memorial Library Reference Stacks Q141 D5 and in other campus libraries) and online as the Complete dictionary of scientific biography, this is a key reference source for history of science and technology. It contains biographies of mathematicians and natural scientists from all countries and from all historical periods; the Complete DSB includes the complete text of the 18-volume original print Dictionary of scientific biography plus the New dictionary of scientific biography.

The biographical dictionary of scientists. 3rd ed. / consultant editors, Roy Porter, Marilyn Ogilvie. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Copies in Memorial Library Reference and Steenbock Library stacks, Q141 B528 2000.

A dictionary of scientists, originally published by Oxford University Press, 1999, now available online through our subscription to Oxford reference online.

Many more specialized biographical dictionaries are available. For example:

Lightman, Bernard V. The dictionary of nineteenth-century British scientists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. Women in science: Antiquity through the nineteenth century: A biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986.

Other selected reference works

Numerous general works, companions, dictionaries, chronologies, catalogs, and handbooks offer useful guidance. In your searches of the Library Catalog, you may also find it useful to combine the subject terms science and history with terms like chronology, biography, handbooks, and sources.

In addition to titles listed below, more specialized reference works on history of specific scientific or technological fields can be found in Memorial Library, Steenbock Library, or other science libraries on campus.

Volumes in the series The Cambridge history of science, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003- , of which volumes 2-7 have appeared. Memorial Library Q125 C32 2003.   

Bynum, W. F, E. J Browne, and Roy Porter. Dictionary of the history of science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Elliott, C. A. History of science in the United States: A chronology and research guide. New York: Garland, 1996.

Heilbron, J. L. The Oxford companion to the history of modern science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Available in print in Memorial Library Reference Stacks Q125 O86 2003 and through Oxford reference online.

Gascoigne, R. Mortimer. A historical catalogue of scientific periodicals, 1665-1900: With a survey of their development. New York: Garland Pub., 1985. Memorial Library Reference Stacks Q158.5 G25 1985.

Rothernburg, Marc. The history of science in the United States: An encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2001. Memorial Library Reference Stacks Q127 U6 H57 2001.

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