The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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The Archibald Prize
JF Archibald between 1910-19. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW ( P1/2150) The Archibald Prize is quintessentially Sydney - bold, controversial, and tinged with celebrity. The annual portraiture prize was established by a benefactor, JF Archibald, and the first prize was…
Joseph Fowles
George street and Charlotte Place, in 'Sydney in 1848 : illustrated by copper-plate engravings of its principal streets, public buildings, churches, chapels, etc.' from drawings by Joseph Fowles, Dixson Library, State Library of NSW (DL Q84/56) Joseph Fowles was by way…
Artists' camps
Sydney Harbour: A souvenir c1897, National Gallery of Australia (Acc No: 46598) The enthusiasm for painting outdoors, embraced by the Impressionist movement in France, hit Sydney in the 1880s. A handful of artist camps were established around Sydney Harbour in the…
Seeing things in Black and White
An article, How to Begin as a Black-and-White Artist, by Lionel Lindsay in the Lone Hand, June 1911, had tips for aspiring artists, via Trove The Society of Australian Black and White Artists, now the Australian Cartoonists Association, is the world's…
Horse Drawn: John Rae and 'The Turning of the First Turf'
John Rae c1884, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ML MSS A807) John Rae is, perhaps, my favourite dead white male. On the surface, he’s really rather ordinary. An administrator who was meticulous and ambitious, he was a career public servant.…
The Newcastle Hotel
Barmaids serving customers in the Newcastle Hotel 1968, National Archives of Australia (A1500, K19075) In honour of Clive James who died this week, today we're going to peek inside the doors of one of the Sydney establishments that helped him along,…
The Witch of Kings Cross
A Weird Story By A Gifted Fifteen Year Old Authoress, Smiths Weekly, 6 January 1934, p16 via Trove Amidst the bohemian neighbourhood of Kings Cross in the mid 20th century, the self-proclaimed ‘witch’ Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) was hard to miss; a…
The Satyr and Five Bells
Life's Tragedy: announcement of Joe Lynch's death in Smith's Weekly, 21 May 1927, via Trove Today on 2SER Breakfast, historian Minna Muhlen-Schulte and Tess talked about the story behind Kenneth Slessor's moving and influential poem, Five Bells. Listen to the…
Vanessa Finney, Transformations: Harriet and Helena Scott, colonial Sydney’s finest natural history painters
Vanessa Finney, Transformations: Harriet and Helena Scott, colonial Sydney’s finest natural history painters NewSouth Books, 2018, 204 pp. (plus notes and index), ISBN: 9781742235806, h/bk, AUS$49.99 Harriet Scott (Morgan) (1830–1907) and Helena Scott (Forde) (1832–1910) were, as natural history artists, without peer…
Posters, ghost signs and billboards
"We are not going to try to have this announcement placed on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, feeling that even a 'CAPSTAN' advertsiement would be somewhat out of harmony with the dignity and impressiveness of this mangnificent structure", Brisbane Courier 23…