01 Jun 07

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, and the start of the 1967 'Summer of Love', the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is hosting an online exhibition featuring the lives of more than 40 men and women who appear on Sir Peter Blake's famous Sgt Pepper album cover.

Figures on the cover - all chosen by members of the band - range from famous authors, such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Oxford writer Lewis Carroll, to comedians Tommy Trinder and Laurel and Hardy, and the political philosopher Karl Marx. Well-known actors on the cover include Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich and Diana Dors while other figures seem unlikely choices, among them the Victorian prime minister Sir Robert Peel, explorer David Livingstone and the occultist, Aleister Crowley.

Commenting on the exhibition Lawrence Goldman, Editor of the Dictionary said: 'Sgt Pepper may not only be one of the most influential albums of the sixties but it also boasts, in Peter Blake's design, one of the iconic album covers of the era. If, like me, you have ever wondered who is lined up behind John, Paul, George and Ringo, here is the chance to find out. Our interactive feature uses the breadth and accessibility of the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to link you to the faces in the crowd.'

The Oxford DNB exhibition is being held in partnership with the American National Biography. It is freely available throughout June and July and also includes podcast versions of the lives of George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a research project of the University and is published by the University Press. Available in print (60 volumes) and online, the Oxford DNB includes the life stories of more than 56,000 men and women who shaped British history worldwide from the fourth century BC to 2003. The Dictionary's online edition is available across the University network and is freely available in almost all UK public libraries, with most offering home access for library members.