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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…
Sydney’s Tank Stream
wp-image-16081https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/SLNSW-XV1-1803-1-DETAIL.jpgThe mouth of the Tank Stream in Sydney Cove c1803, a detail of [Sydney from the western side of the Cove, ca1803], atrributed to GW Evans, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (XV1/c1803/1)400301/> The mouth of the Tank Stream…
Customs House
Custom House and Circular Quay 1845 by GE Peacock, courtesy Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW (DG 35) The City of Sydney have just announced that they have acquired Customs House from the Commonwealth Government, so today I thought we'd take…
Sydney’s pissoirs & underground conveniences
Urinal Observatory Hill 1968, Courtesy City of Sydney Archives (CRS 34/2401/71 ) Nicole Cama's been sharing stories from the Dictionary with 2SER listeners for five years. Sadly it's her last segment for a while today, so she thought she'd revisit one…
Bunting, pickets and harpoons - electioneering Sydney style
Embroidered election banner for Wentworth and Bland, 1843-1849, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (LR 3a) As electioneering reaches a fever pitch ahead of Saturday's polling day, I thought it might be instructive to look back on how electioneering was done…
Temperance and the ‘evils of tight lacing’: Susan Beckett
Diagram of Susan Beckett's Bust and Shoulder Supporter in her application to the United States Patent Office, April 1896 (Patent No: US557945) With International Women’s Day and the All About Women festival in the past week, there have been some great…
Vanessa Finney, Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893
Vanessa Finney, Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893 NewSouth Books, 2019, 654 pp., ISBN: 9781742234984, p/bk, AUS$49.99 Let me declare a point of self-interest before I say too much about this insightful and intriguing book. I confess to…
Sally Young, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires
Sally Young, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires NewSouth Books, 2019, 654 pp., ISBN: 9781742234984, p/bk, AUS$39.99 Sally Young’s new book, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires (2019), is stunning. The history of print media is messy. It is more…
International Women's Day
Three members of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps, l-r Violet McKenzie, Pat McInnes, Esme Kura Murrell c1940, courtesy Australian War Memorial P02583.001 As it's International Women's Day this Friday, today I thought it would be good to highlight the lives and…
Shirley Beiger: ‘All that glittered was not gold’
Shirley Beiger on the cover of PIX 28 April 1951 The State Library of NSW have made an enormous amount of historical material available online in recent years. One such resource is the tabloid magazine, PIX , which was published between 1938…