The Dictionary of National Biography began in 1882 as an ambitious project spearheaded by George Smith to produce a biographical dictionary of prominent figures from Britain and Ireland from the earliest of times up to 1900. The efforts of hundreds of contributors resulted in a 22 volume alphabetical series containing thousands of biographies. This database contains Volumes 1-20, and 22 of this series, which includes the biographies of those with surnames Abbadie-Whewell. It also contains The Concise Dictionary, which is a summary guide and index to the rest of the series, and also the Supplement, which deals with people who died too late to be included in the earlier volumes.