Where women's life stories are found (and lost)
The Modern Beatrices Archive draws from multiple sources: national biographical databases including theOxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB), American National Biography (ANB), and Enciclopedia degli Italiani Treccani; historical census records from the United Kingdom, United States, and Italy; Wikipedia and Wikidata; and personal archives. Names are verified against and linked to the Library of Congress Name Authority File and the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF).
Yet these sources were never neutral—they reflect centuries of decisions about who deserved documentation. National databases historically favored public figures and those connected to male power structures. Census records captured women primarily through household relationships. Personal archives survived only when families deemed them worth preserving.
Why All or Nothing?
Across all 227 profiles, records are either comprehensive or nearly nonexistent—few fall in between. This pattern exposes how women existed in historical memory: often recorded only through relationships to men, their independent actions erased. Every partial or unknown record represents a life incompletely remembered—the result of systematic choices about whose stories mattered enough to preserve.
Biographical Record Completeness Analysis
Comparing the completeness of biographical records across different data elements.
Completeness by Nationality
Record completeness varies significantly across different national contexts.
What Determines Whose Story Survives?
The data reveals a striking discrepancy between documented and alleged nationalities. Of approximately 150 Italian individuals, nearly 130 have documented nationality—suggesting robust archival evidence. Yet North American records tell a different story: 55 alleged nationalities but significantly fewer documented ones. British (English) and British (Scottish) show similar patterns of incomplete documentation.
Does this reflect where women lived more verifiable lives, or simply which national biographical traditions—like Enciclopedia Treccani—have been more systematic in preserving evidence?