Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The definitive compendium of British biographies, originally commissioned by publisher George Murray Smith of Smith, Elder & co. A series of editors and a long list of contributors followed the format first established by Sir Leslie Stephen. Entries range from one paragraph to several pages per person.

The DNB was acquired by Oxford University Press circa 1912. They added supplements, errata, indices, and a _Concise_ version. Modern versions are published as the _Oxford Dictionary of National Biography_.

A painstaking transcription from scanned public domain copies is underway at WikiSource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WikiProject_DNB