Dictionary of Virginia Biography

The Library of Virginia established the Dictionary of Virginia Biography project to help fill a gap in the historical literature as well as to foster greater awareness of the richness and variety of Virginia's past.

Biography is one of the oldest literary and historical forms. Many people find it easier to relate to the past through the life stories of individuals viewed within the context of their time and place. Historians rely heavily on biography, finding themselves unable to interpret and analyze important episodes and developments without knowing something about the men and women involved in shaping them.

The editors began the search for Dictionary of Virginia Biography candidates by surveying all existing nineteenth- and twentieth-century reference works, encyclopedias, directories, and historical journals containing biographical information on Virginians.

Once this task was completed, they spent several years reading the extensive printed literature in the Library's vast collection relating to Virginia's towns, cities, counties, churches, schools, businesses, professions, industries, social and cultural organizations, political institutions, military units, and reform societies. Much of this material consisted of books and articles written by modern-day historians, but a large proportion of the Library's collection also comprises annual reports, yearbooks, catalogs, promotional brochures, and commemorative publications issued through time by community organizations across the state. These works in particular proved to be gold mines for biographical information about Virginians whose stories have not yet been adequately told elsewhere. For example, a systematic survey of the surviving records of women's voluntary associations and the extant issues of nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American newspapers helped to fill important gaps in the existing historiography.

DVB staff members also traveled to the state's leading public libraries and historical repositories to study their rich printed and manuscript resources and regularly sought the advice of local historians, genealogists, subject specialists, and scholars whose collective expertise extended well beyond the available published sources.

A biographical reference work such as the DVB cannot possibly include every interesting or successful person who lived in the past, but it should encompass all those who had an important impact on their communities or who achieved extraordinary recognition from their contemporaries or from posterity. The definition of significance necessarily varies from century to century, from one geographic region to another, and from one field of endeavor to another.

Certain categories of people, most of whom were involved in public life, are included automatically because their participation in events of great consequence has made them frequent subjects of requests for biographical information. The categories of automatic inclusion are: Virginia-born presidents of the United States; governors and lieutenant governors of Virginia (including absentee royal governors); members of the governor's Council during the colonial period and of the Council of State between 1776 and its abolition in 1851; Speakers of the House of Burgesses, the House of Delegates, and the Senate of Virginia; African American and female members of the General Assembly before the year 2000; Virginia members of the Continental Congress, the Confederation Congress, the United States Congress, and the Confederate States Congress; cabinet officers of the United States and the Confederate States governments resident in Virginia when appointed; justices of the United States Supreme Court and judges of the United States appellate and district courts resident in Virginia when appointed; judges of the highest appellate court in Virginia; attorneys general of Virginia; members of all Virginia constitutional conventions from 1776 through 1902 and of the federal constitutional convention of 1787; members of the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788 and of the Secession Convention of 1861; members of the Virginia State Corporation Commission; general officers from Virginia in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War; winners of major national or international awards, such as Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes; presidents of important national or international organizations; and presidents of the major institutions of higher education in Virginia.

Most of the persons who are included in the Dictionary of Virginia Biography do not fall into one of these automatic categories. Rather, they are Virginians whose lives and careers made them exceptional in their communities and professions. Some are associated with unusually important or notorious events, such as Floyd Allen, principal in the 1912 gunfight in the Carroll County courthouse, and the enslaved woman Mary Aggie, defendant in a precedent-setting court case. Others, such as frontierswoman Anne Hennis Trotter "Mad Anne" Bailey, are included because they became legendary figures and require a reliable biographical entry that separates fact from fiction.

As a historical reference work, the Dictionary of Virginia Biography does not include persons living at the time of publication. Military and naval officers temporarily residing in Virginia also fall outside the selection criteria. As a general rule, persons who moved to Virginia to take employment with the United States government and whose distinction in their professional or political careers was entirely associated with United States government service are not included.

The many native Virginians who have left the state in pursuit of fame, fortune, or professional success pose more complicated questions of inclusion. Many expatriates achieved significant national or international success in fields that they could not pursue at the highest levels in Virginia, such as diplomacy, military service, the theater, or sports. In the process many of them have ceased to be identified in the public eye as Virginians, and their limited contributions to Virginia's history and culture do not justify including entries on them in the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. One such person is the singer Pearl Bailey who, though born in Virginia, did not pursue her career in the state and instead became a truly national figure. The lives and careers of many other people became inextricably linked with other places, such as Great Britain (Nancy Langhorne Astor, viscountess Astor), Kentucky (Henry Clay), or Texas (Sam Houston), and they are not included because their lives are not normally regarded as integral parts of Virginia's history and culture.

As of 2026, there are almost 2,000 total DVB entries in the printed volumes and published online. Approximately 60 percent of the total are available online.

The founders of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography conceived of the project as a set of printed volumes published in alphabetical order. The first volume (Aaroe-Blanchfield) was published in 1998 and the third (Caperton-Daniels) in 2006. By that time, the internet had become the go-to source for reference information and so DVB biographies began to be published online. Since the alphabetical order was no longer necessary to follow, DVB staff have focused on particular areas of Virginia history including the African American legislators of the 19th century and woman suffragists of the 20th century.

For purposes of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Virginia is defined by the state's current geographic boundaries, plus Kentucky prior to statehood in 1792 and West Virginia prior to statehood in 1863. With a few exceptions, no person is included who did not live a significant portion of his or her life in Virginia.

The Dictionary of Virginia Biography is intended for teachers, students, librarians, historians, journalists, genealogists, museum professionals, and other researchers who have a need for biographical information about those Virginians who, regardless of place of birth or death, made significant contributions to the history or culture of their locality, state, or nation.

Family history research has played an important part in the production of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, although the biographies do not contain a full genealogical record of Virginia's most influential families. Authors have noted family relationships, as needed, to find, verify, and correct dates of birth, death, and marriage; to identify or enumerate parents, children, siblings, and spouses; to evaluate the role of important family members in a subject's life; and to take notice of other family members whose lives a subject strongly influenced.