Notable American Women, 1607-1950; a Biographical Dictionary.

Notable American Women, 1607-1950 is a three volume biographical dictionary published in 1971. Its origins lay in 1957 when Radcliffe College librarians, archivists, and professors began researching the need for a version of the Dictionary of American Biography dedicated solely to women.^[1] It was the first major modern reference book of women's biographies, although the genre was common in earlier eras, such as the 1804 A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women Of Every Age and Country by Matilda Betham.^[2] It appeared when Women's studies in U.S. universities had created great interest in understanding women's past.^[3] Upon its publication it was viewed by scholars as a magnificent contribution to understanding the role of women in U.S. history.^[4] Writing of the changes in perspective on biography inspired by Notable American Women, 1607-1950 Susan Ware observed, "1,359 entries showed the range and depth of women’s contributions to American life, a pointed correction to women’s near-total exclusion from existing biographical dictionaries at the time and a dramatic spur to further research."^[5]

Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary updated the set for subjects who died between 1951 and 1976. The work for that volume was a joint project of Radcliffe College and Harvard University Press funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.^[6]

In 2004 volume 5 was issued: Notable American Women : a Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century. ^[7]

References

1. ↑ James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971., xi.
2. ↑ James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
3. ↑ Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green. Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980.
4. ↑ Miller, Roberta Balstad. "Women and American history." Women's Studies 2, no. 1 (January 1974): 105-113
5. ↑ Ware, Susan. "Writing Women's Lives: One Historian's Perspective." Journal Of Interdisciplinary History 40, no. 3 (Winter 2010): 413-435.
6. ↑ Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green. Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980.
7. ↑ Braukman, Stacy Lorraine, and Susan Ware. 2004. Notable American Women : a Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century. n.p.: Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2004.