© Oxford University Press
Museums and Galleries Month is also Local History Month, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is marking the occasion by highlighting people who shaped the history of British regions.
From 'Protein Man' Stanley Green (of Oxford Circus) to cat's eye inventor Percy Shaw (of Halifax), local heroes with strong regional connections are being highlighted on an interactive map of Britain, available online throughout May.
Other people you will find on the map include the Lancastrian Pendle Witches and John O'Groats, the ferryman who supposedly gave his name to the most northerly inhabited place on mainland Scotland.
The local heroes map is at:
www.oxforddnb.com/public/localheroes.
A second map offers a selection of more than 35 episodes from the Dictionary's series of biography podcasts.
Lives featured include native American princess Pocahontas, who settled in Brentford; Pete Marsh – the body discovered in Lindow Bog, Cheshire; Yorkshire aviator Amy Johnson; Glasgow railplane inventor George Bennie; and Pasqua Rosee, who opened London's first coffee house in the 1650s.
The podcast map is at:
www.oxforddnb.com/public/podcastmap.
There are 56,000 men and women detailed in the Oxford DNB, freely available in public libraries. Published by Oxford University Press, it is updated three times a year.
