The index provided easy access to the biographical entries in early Idaho mug-books, county histories containing biographee-supplied entries, sold by subscription. Among those in this genre were "A History of Idaho Territory Showing Its Resources and Advantages" (1884) and "An Illustrated History of North Idaho Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties" (1903).
Over several months in 1997 and 1998 Special Collections, using its newly acquired scanner, digitized the cards and placed the data in a database. An ongoing effort to add newly published entries to the database has increased its size to over 12,000 entries. A bibliography of included books was provided in 1999, Click HERE to view that list.
Today, while not as extensive as the Idaho State Archive's index, it provides some unique sources that can be found in the U of I Library. The index includes over 19,000 biographical references extracted from more than 50 books. The easy to use table includes features to browse, sort, filter, and export the index data.
Click Here to view the University of Idaho Special Collections - Biographical Index
The Idaho Biographical Index (IBI) is an index of persons named in state, county and community histories, regional periodicals, and selected newspaper articles from around the state and throughout its history. Once the index loads use the tabs along the bottom to find sheets organized by first letter of the individual’s last name and then use the scrollbars at the right and bottom of the screen to navigate to individual names and view full citation information.
Click here to view the Idaho State Historical Society index.
State Historian Merle Wells created his "List of References for Idaho History" in 1957
Click here to download the PDF.
Access Genealogy has extracted biographies from the 1899 Illustrated History of the State of Idaho that represent the leading men of Idaho at the turn of the 20th Century.
Click here to view the 1899 Illustrated Biographies index.
Page updated August 2021
Please, If you would like to add resources, if you know of something that should be linked here or if you have any problems using this website contact us.
Coordinator - Randy Cummings
State Coordinator - Kerry A Hairston