The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online.

The first series

Seeking to emulate national biographical collections published in Europe, such as the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary which would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus on subjects from the UK and its present and former colonies only. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work. The first volume of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' appeared on 1 January 1885. In May 1891, Leslie Stephen resigned the editorship. Sidney Lee, Stephen's assistant editor from the beginning of the project, succeeded him as editor. A dedicated team of sub-editors and researchers worked under Stephen and Lee, combining a variety of talents from veteran journalists to young scholars who cut their academic teeth on dictionary articles at a time when postgraduate historical research in British universities was still in its infancy. While much of the dictionary was written in-house, the ''DNB'' also relied on external contributors, who included several respected writers and scholars of the late nineteenth century. Successive volumes appeared quarterly with complete punctuality until midsummer 1900, when the series closed with volume 63. The year of publication, the editor and the range of names in each volume is given below.

Supplements and revisions

Since the scope included only deceased figures, the ''DNB'' was soon extended by the issue of three supplementary volumes, covering subjects who had died between 1885 and 1900 or who had been overlooked in the original alphabetical sequence. The supplements brought the whole work up to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. Corrections were added.

After issuing a volume of errata in 1904, the dictionary was reissued with minor revisions in 22 volumes in 1908 and 1909; a subtitle said that it covered British history "from the earliest times to the year 1900". In the words of the 1911 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', the dictionary had "elucidated the private annals of the British", providing not only concise lives of the notable deceased, but additionally lists of sources which were invaluable to researchers in a period when few libraries or collections of manuscripts had published catalogues or indices, and the production of indices to periodical literatures was just beginning. Throughout the twentieth century, further volumes were published for those who had died, generally on a decade-by-decade basis, beginning in 1912 with a supplement edited by Lee covering those who died between 1901 and 1911. The dictionary was transferred from its original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co., to Oxford University Press in 1917. Until 1996, Oxford University Press continued to add further supplements featuring articles on subjects who had died during the 20th century.

The supplements published between 1912 and 1996 added about 6,000 lives of people who died in the 20th century to the 29,120 in the 63 volumes of the original ''DNB''. In 1993 a volume containing missing persons was published. This had an additional 1,000 lives, selected from over 100,000 suggestions. This did not seek to replace any articles on existing ''DNB'' subjects, even though the original work had been written from a Victorian perspective and had become out of date in that it could not take into account changes in historical assessments and discoveries of new information during the twentieth century. Consequently, the dictionary was becoming less and less useful as a reference work.

In 1996, the University of London. published a volume of corrections, cumulated from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research.

Concise dictionary

There were various versions of the ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'', which covered everyone in the main work but with much shorter articles; some were only two lines. The last edition, in three volumes, covered everyone who died before 1986.

==Oxford Dictionary of National Biography== In the early 1990s Oxford University Press committed itself to overhauling the ''DNB''. Work on what was known until 2001 as the ''New Dictionary of National Biography'', or ''New DNB'', began in 1992 under the editorship of Colin Matthew, professor of modern history at the University of Oxford. Matthew decided that no subjects from the old dictionary would be excluded, however insignificant the subjects appeared to a late-twentieth-century eye; that a minority of shorter articles from the original dictionary would remain in the new in revised form, but most would be rewritten; and that room would be made for about 14,000 new subjects. Suggestions for new subjects were solicited through questionnaires placed in libraries and universities and, as the 1990s advanced, online, and assessed by the editor, the 12 external consultant editors and several hundred associate editors and in-house staff.

The new dictionary would cover British history, "broadly defined" (including, for example, subjects from Roman Britain, the United States of America before its independence, and from Britain's former colonies, provided they were functionally part of the Empire and not of "the indigenous culture" (Introduction)) up to 31 December 2000. The research project was conceived as a collaborative one, with in-house staff co-ordinating the work of nearly 10,000 contributors internationally. It would remain selective – there would be no attempt to include all members of parliament, for example – but would seek to include significant, influential or notorious figures from the whole canvas of the life of Britain and its former colonies, overlaying the decisions of the late-nineteenth-century editors with the interests of late-twentieth-century scholarship in the hope that "the two epochs in collaboration might produce something more useful for the future than either epoch on its own", but acknowledging also that a final definitive selection is impossible to achieve.

Following Matthew's death in October 1999, he was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Professor Brian Harrison, in January 2000.

The new dictionary, now known as the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (or ''ODNB''), was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes in print at a price of £7500, and in an online edition for subscribers. Most UK holders of a current library card can access it online free of charge. The print edition is currently selling for £1500. At publication, the 2004 edition had 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives, including entries on all subjects included in the old ''DNB''. (The old DNB entries on these subjects may be accessed separately through a link to the "DNB Archive" – many of the longer entries are still highly regarded.) A small permanent staff remain in Oxford to update and extend the coverage of the online edition. Brian Harrison was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Dr Lawrence Goldman, in October 2004. The first online update was published on 4 January 2005, including subjects who had died in 2001. A further update, including subjects from all periods, followed on 23 May 2005, and another on 6 October 2005. New subjects who died in 2002 were added to the online dictionary on 5 January 2006, with continuing releases in May and October in subsequent years following the precedent of 2005. The ODNB also includes some new biographies on people who died before the DNB was published and are not included in the original DNB, because they have become notable since the DNB was published through the work of more recent historians, for example William Eyre (fl. 1634–1675).

The online version has an advanced search facility, allowing a search for people by area of interest, religion and "Places, Dates, Life Events". This accesses an electronic index that cannot be directly viewed.

Response to the new dictionary has been for the most part positive, but in the months following publication there was occasional criticism of the dictionary in some British newspapers and periodicals for reported factual inaccuracies. However, the number of articles publicly queried in this way was small – only 23 of the 50,113 articles published in September 2004, leading to fewer than 100 substantiated factual amendments. These and other queries received since publication are being considered as part of an ongoing programme of assessing proposed corrections or additions to existing subject articles, which can, when approved, be incorporated into the online edition of the dictionary. In 2005, The American Library Association awarded the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' its prestigious Dartmouth Medal. A general review of the Dictionary was published in 2007.

==First series contents== Contents of each volume of the first series with year of publication and editor.

! Volume	! Names	! Year Pub.	! Editor
1	Abbadie – Anne
2	Annesley – Baird
3	Baker – Beadon
4	Beal – Biber
5	Bicheno – Bottisham
6	Bottomley – Browell
7	Brown – Burthogge
8	Burton – Cantwell
9	Canute – Chaloner
10	Chamber – Clarkson
11	Clater – Condell
12	Conder – Craigie
13	Craik – Damer
14	Damon – D'Eyncourt
15	Diamond – Drake
16	Drant – Edridge
17	Edward – Erskine
18	Esdale – Finan
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
27	Hindmarsh – Hovenden
28	Howard – Inglethorpe
29	Inglish – John
30	Johnes – Kenneth
31	Kennett – Lambart
32	Lambe – Leigh
33	Leighton – Lluelyn
34	Llywd – MacCartney
35	MacCarwell – Maltby
36	Malthus – Mason
37	Masquerier – Millyng
38	Milman – More
39	Morehead – Myles
40	Myllar – Nicholls
41	Nichols – O'Dugan
42	O'Duinn – Owen
43	Owens – Passelewe
44	Paston – Percy
45	Pereira – Pockrich
46	Pocock – Puckering
47	Puckle – Reidfurd
48	Reilly – Robins
49	Robinson – Russell
50	Russen – Scobell
51	Scoffin – Sheares
52	Shearman – Smirke
53	Smith – Stanger
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

See also

List of contributors to the Dictionary of National Biography

Biographical dictionary

References

;Attribution

External links

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website

Free index to the ODNB

''About the Oxford DNB'', Oxford University Press site

''Introduction to the Oxford DNB'', Oxford University Press site

Corrections to the ODNB submitted and peer-reviewed by members of soc.medieval/Gen-Med

;DNB

''Index and Epitome to the Dictionary of National Biography'', 1903, Perseus Digital Library

Online volumes of the first and second series,

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1885 books Category:2004 books National Biography Category:British biographers Category:British non-fiction literature Category:Online person databases National Biography Category:Oxford University Press books

de:Dictionary of National Biography fr:Dictionary of National Biography it:Dictionary of National Biography no:Dictionary of National Biography pl:Dictionary of National Biography sv:Dictionary of National Biography zh:牛津國家人物傳記大辭典

Coordinates	23°31′58″N46°47′58″N
name	Tim Gunn
birth date	July 29, 1953
birth place	Washington, D.C., United States
Birth name	Timothy M. Gunn
Residence	New York City, New York, United States
Education	BFA, Sculpture
Alma mater	Corcoran College of Art and Design
known for	Fashion
occupation	Fashion consultant, television personality, chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne, Inc.
nationality	American}}

Timothy M. "Tim" Gunn (born July 29, 1953) is an American fashion consultant and television personality. He was on the faculty of Parsons The New School for Design from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. He is well-known as on-air mentor to designers on the reality television program ''Project Runway''. Gunn's popularity on ''Project Runway'' led to his spin-off show, Bravo's ''Tim Gunn's Guide to Style'', as well as his book ''A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style''.

Early life

Gunn was born in Chicago and raised in Washington, D.C. His father, George William Gunn, was an FBI agent during the administration of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Gunn was a champion swimmer throughout high school, and later attended the Corcoran College of Art and Design, receiving a BFA in sculpture.

According to a video Gunn created for the It Gets Better project, he attempted to commit suicide at the age of 17 by swallowing over 100 pills.

Career

Gunn started working at Parsons in 1982 and served as associate dean from 1989–2000, then became chair in August 2000. He was credited with "retooling and invigorating the curriculum for the 21st century."

Gunn began appearing on ''Project Runway'' during its first season in 2004, and is known for his catchphrase "Make it work." ''Tim Gunn's Guide to Style'', a reality show in which Gunn gives advice to the fashion-challenged, debuted in September 2007 on the Bravo television network.

Gunn also played a version of himself as a reporter for the fictional ''Fashion TV'' in two episodes of ABC's ''Ugly Betty'' in February 2007 and later guest starred on ''Drop Dead Diva'' in August 2009 as himself.

Gunn left Parsons in 2007 and joined Liz Claiborne as the company's chief creative officer in March of that year.

In April 2007, Abrams Image Publishers released Gunn's book ''A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style'', co-written with Kate Moloney, cover photo by Markus Klinko & Indrani. While on tour in Palm Springs, California, the nearby city of Palm Desert honored him with an official resolution declaring April 27, 2007 (the day of his visit) "Timothy M. Gunn Day". He was also presented with a certificate by the city of Palm Springs and a plaque by the nearby city of Rancho Mirage in recognition of his career achievements. While promoting the book in the San Francisco Bay Area in May 2007, Gunn joined the judging panel of Project FiveFour 07, to judge gowns designed by 12 students from San Francisco's Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. The competition benefited The Princess Project, a Bay Area charity that gives free prom dresses to high school students who can't afford to buy them on their own.

In May 2009, Gunn served as commencement speaker at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and received an honorary doctorate from the institution.

He makes sporadic appearances on ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'''s "Dear Aquaman" segments, helping or standing in for Aquaman (Ferguson), answering letters and dispensing advice.

He guest starred as Barney's personal tailor on the 100th episode of ''How I Met Your Mother''.

Gunn is guest-starring as himself on the 6th episode of CW's fourth season of ''Gossip Girl'', "Easy J".

In other media

In August 2007, "Tim Gunn's Podcast (a reality chamber opera)" by Jeffrey Lependorf premiered at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City. It received its first run one year later at New York International Fringe Festival.

Gunn appeared in a backup story in the first issue of ''Models Inc.'', a fashion-themed comic book miniseries published by Marvel Comics that debuted in September 2009 to coincide with New York City's style showcase. Gunn appeared on a variant cover of the issue illustrated by Phil Jimenez. In the series, which is written by ''Project Runway'' fan Mark Sumerak and illustrated by Jimenez, Gunn dons the Iron Man armor to foil an attack against the New York Fashion Museum.

Gunn appeared in the opening skit on the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards to style Jimmy Fallon to look like Bruce Springsteen, from his Born in the USA album.

Personal life

Gunn lives in New York City and is a homoromantic asexual. In a 2006 interview with ''Instinct'', Gunn stated that he had not been in a relationship since the early 1980s, following the abrupt end of a six-year relationship, and that he still loves his former partner, though they are not in touch.

Gunn is an outspoken critic of clothing designs using animal fur. In 2008, he narrated a video about rabbit fur farming in China for animal rights group PETA. He termed the treatment of animals used for fur as "egregiously irresponsible".

Filmography

''Project Runway'' (2004–present)

''Drinks with LX'' (2006)

''Ugly Betty'' (2007)

''Tim Gunn's Guide to Style'' (2007–2008)

''American Dad!'' (2008)

''The Replacements'' (2008)

''Drop Dead Diva'' (2009)

''Project Runway: All-Star Challenge'' (2009)

''The Biggest Loser: Second Chances'' (2009)

''How I Met Your Mother'' (2010)

''Sex and the City 2'' (2010)

''Gossip Girl'' (2010)

''The Smurfs'' (2011)

'' Teen Spirit'' (2011)

Published works

References

External links

Lifetime TV's ''Project Runway'' official website

''Chicago Tribune'' (December 1, 2005): "A chat with Tim Gunn of 'Project Runway'"

''The New York Times'' (Apr. 12, 2007): "The Headmaster of Fashion"

Interview: Sarah's Backstage Pass: Sarah Adamson "Style for the Suburban Woman"

Category:1953 births Category:People in fashion Category:Living people Category:Asexual people Category:Parsons The New School for Design faculty Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:Project Runway Category:LGBT television personalities Category:LGBT writers from the United States

de:Tim Gunn es:Tim Gunn ja:ティム・ガン pt:Tim Gunn ru:Ганн, Тим