The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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Get on your dancing shoes

Band playing at a Popular Dance night at the Trocadero in early 1938, by Ivan Ive, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON 388/Box 030/Item 121) Once the most glamorous dance hall in Sydney, the Trocadero on George Street hosted queens,…

Enmore Theatre: Sydney's longest running live entertainment venue

Children running into a school holiday matinee at Enmore Theatre 1951 by Bob Rice, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON 388/Box 005/Item 047) Sometimes you are involved in making history without even realising it, and anyone who has seen something…

William Castell: ‘professor of dancing’

Advertisement for Mr Cavendish de Castell's Dancing Academy, 9 March 1833, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 9 March 1833, p3 One of the many fascinating people on the Dictionary of Sydney is William Castell, ‘professor of dancing’, musician…

Isaac Nathan - ‘Australia’s first composer’

Isaac Nathan, Australia's first composer c1820 Courtesy National Library of Australia (nla.pic-an2292675) The Dictionary of Sydney chronicles the lives of some of Sydney’s most fascinating people. Isaac Nathan, who was hailed as ‘Australia’s first composer’ despite being the English-born son of…

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…