The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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Are you missing out on the Dictionary of Sydney newsletters?
Did you know that the Dictionary of Sydney has an email newsletter as well as this blog? The newsletter comes out several a year and keeps you up to date with the Dictionary's news, content, projects and developments. You can subscribe online,…
The Mad Dentist of Wynyard Square
Henry Louis Bertrand c1865 Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (c011220001 / P2/468) This week on 2SER Breakfast with Nic Healey, Nicole shared author John Edwards's Dictionary entry on Henry Louis Bertrand, the dentist of Wynyard Square whose murderous &…
Historic meets modern at Sydney Open
Stained glass window in in Sydney Town Hall, designed by Lucien Henry symbolising Australia. Photo by Paul Paterson, Courtesy City of Sydney Council. It's on again this Sunday, 6 November! Sydney Open is your chance to be a sticky beak and see…
2SER Supporter Drive
Support 2SER's annual fundraising event and let them know you care! You may have noticed that the Dictionary hasn't been on the radio lately, and that's because 2SER are running their annual supporter drive. We love our segments on 2SER Breakfast each…
Scandalous Music
Monument in memory of NC Bochsa, erected by Anna Bishop over his grave in Camperdown Cemetery, 1856 by Edmund Thomas Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a4236001 / SV1/Cem/Campe/1) I was wandering around Camperdown Cemetery the other day when I…
The Royal Commission into Noxious and Offensive Trades
Scalding and dressing pigs at Mr D O'Connell's pig-killing pens, Glebe Island abattoir, 1879 Australian town and country journal, 7 June 1879, p 1088 There have been many current and proposed Royal Commissions in the news lately, so I thought I’d…
Have you ever been to see Kings Cross?
William Street, Kings Cross at night 1970 by John Fitzpatrick, Credit: National Archives of Australia (A1200, L84008) Comic entertainer Frankie Davidson asked Australians in 1963 'Have you ever been to see Kings Cross?' Whether you've been there or not, you probably know…
Jim Davidson, Moments in Time: a Book of Australian Postcards
Jim Davidson, Moments in Time: a book of Australian postcards National Library of Australia, 2016, paperback $44.99 ISBN 9780642278777 The humble postcard enjoyed a relatively brief but spectacular place in postage history roughly from the 1890s to the 1920s. They were cheap and attractive and…
Sydney’s shipwrecks
Last week news broke that HMS Terror, the long-lost ship of British polar explorer (and former Governor of Tasmania) Sir John Franklin, has been found 168 years after its sinking. I thought I’d delve into the Dictionary of Sydney and…
The Garden Palace, objects and memories
Garden Palace, Sydney c1879-1882 by JT Richardson Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a128953 / XV1/ Pub/ Gar P/2) On 17 September 1879 the Sydney International Exhibition opened in the newly built Garden Palace in the Botanic Gardens, along with…