Steps to find a short biography
Short biographical information on architects, landscape architects and other designers, can be a helpful way to learn about them. In addition to a short overview of their careers, these often select some readings on the individual, or list some major works and exhibitions. Sometimes they also provide a statement by the designer.
Short Bios on an Architect or Designer
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowthe largest and most authoritative list of biographies of artists in English, as well as an excellent collection of scholarly encyclopedia articles on important topics in the visual arts
Of course you can often find short bios by entering an artist’s name in a search engine and these can work fine if you examine them carefully. In general, the biographies posted by major museums, art galleries, or the designer themselves, are of a higher quality than those provided by the many commercial sites such as Artcyclopedia, AskArt, Artnet, etc. Accuracy varies. Web bios for historic figures are frequently copied from public domain (pre-1923) sources.
Wikipedia: While the information found on Wikipedia is not always accurate and should always be verified, Wikipedia entries often provide links to more trustworthy sources at the bottom on the entry under "External Links."
Here are a few select titles from our Reference Collection that contain brief biographies of Architects.
The Oxford Companion to Architecture by 
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Call Number: NA31.O93 2009 v.1 & v.2-- available both as an eBook and a paper copy
Contains both brief biographies of architects and brief entries for various building types, movements and styles to materials, aspects of design, and definitions.
Encyclopedia of Architecture by Call Number: NA31.E59 1988 v.1 - v.5Contains biographies of leading architects as well as entries on various architectural processes & design, materials, construction methods, articles on architectural aesthetics, literature & criticism.
