The Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (BWN) is an academic reference work that contains short descriptions of the lives of persons who distinguished themselves in some way in the recent or distant past. A large number of different authors wrote these short biographical descriptions.
The BWN has for many years been the only general and national biographical dictionary in the Netherlands. It contains brief descriptions of the lives of persons who played a role of some significance in the Netherlands or its territories abroad. Biographical descriptions are, in principle, also included for foreigners who distinguished themselves in here, and Dutch citizens who made a name for themselves abroad.
Although the BWN expressly contains persons from the whole of Dutch history, from the very earliest times to the present day, in practice the emphasis quickly came to lie with persons who became well known in the twentieth century. This was, after all, where the biggest gap was.
After the publication over the course of time of 2071 mini-biographies of mainly twentieth-century persons, in 2008 the decision was made to temporarily cease this and to devote attention to the more distant past, more specifically to the period from 1780 to 1830.
Two sub-projects can thus be temporarily classified under the collective name Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland: