The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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Dyarubbin

Dorumbolooa, Sackville Reach June 2018, photo by Grace Karskens Most people feel familiar with the Hawkesbury, one of Sydney’s most recognisable rivers, but how much do they really know? Listen to Marika and Wilamina on 2SER here The Hawkesbury River, known as…

Living Language: Country, Culture, Community

Dawes' notebooks on display in the Living Language exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales As part of the UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages, there's a fascinating exhibition on right now at the State Library of New South…

Street Photography

Today on 2SER Breakfast, Lisa and Tess talked about a fabulous new exhibition at the Museum of Sydney called Street Photography, that looks at the popularity of commercial street photographers in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Listen to Lisa and Tess…

The Mitchell Library's new galleries

It's a VERY exciting week to be an historian in Sydney this week with the opening of the new galleries and a learning centre in the historic Mitchell Library wing of the State Library of New South Wales, so today…

Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders

The NSW State Archives and Records’ exhibition Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders features fascinating stories of women trailblazers in the public sector. Listen to Nicole and Tess on 2SER here.  Among the many inspiring women featured in the exhibition is Margaret Harper, a paediatrician…

Mugshots 1920s style

A few weeks ago I talked about the Registry of Flashmen which was compiled by William Miles, a police commissioner who used the latest surveillance techniques of the 1840s to understand the local criminal class. Fast forward 80 years to…

Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties - exhibition review

Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties, which has just opened at the Museum of Sydney, is an exploration of crime in a decade that heralded the brave new world that emerged from the devastation of World War I. Curated by the…

Thomas​ ​Ley:​ ​Politician​ ​and​ ​murderer

Portrait of TJ Ley 1925 Courtesy National Library of Australia (nla.pic-an23460617) The State Archives and Records NSW has a new exhibition online and at the Western Sydney Records Centre in Kingswood titled ‘Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930’. It explores photographs and…

Sydney’s modernists

The Australian Women's Weekly, September 7 1946, p48 via Trove Sydney Living Museums has an interesting exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, The Moderns: European Designers in Sydney. This exhibition seems to come at a time where this city’s built environment…

Demolished Sydney

There’s an interesting exhibition on at the Museum of Sydney at the moment called ‘Demolished Sydney: Georgian town to global city’. It features the buildings and places that once shaped the city’s skyline and were demolished to make way for…