The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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The Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum
Sydney Living Museums’ wonderful event Sydney Open is coming up on 4 and 5 November, where the doors of more than 60 of the city’s most important and intriguing buildings and spaces will be open to the public for one weekend. One…
Inaugural Coral Thomas Fellowship Lecture
On 19 October, Dr Rebe Taylor, the State Library of New South Wales' current Coral Thomas Fellow, will deliver the inaugural lecture on her recent findings. In the early 1830s, surveyor John Helder Wedge collected early south-eastern Aboriginal wooden artefacts from…
Sydney’s coffee obsession
Sydney Gazette, 31 July 1803, p4 via Trove Sunday 1 October was International Coffee Day and we certainly love our coffee in Australia. Historian Garry Wotherspoon has written an article in the Dictionary of Sydney about how our city’s obsession with…
A distinguished lady doctor
Dagmar Berne c1890, State Archives and Records NSW (9873_a025_a025000112) Today on 2SER Breakfast we looked at the inspiring tale of Sydney's first female medical student, Dagmar Berne. It's not really a happy story, but this resilient and generous woman made an…
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…
The Peapes ghost sign
The Peapes sign recently uncovered at Wynyard, September 2017 Photo courtesy City of Sydney You may have heard about or seen the colourful advertising sign for Peapes Menswear store that was revealed recently down at Wynyard (285-287 George Street) after the…
James Bray and his Museum of Curios
Drawn from life by JS Bray, the tiger or brown-banded snake, Hoplocephalus curtus - venomous by JS Bray, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (c004220010 / PXA 192) The first entry to be published on the Dictionary since our recent…
Mozart and The Doll
Performance of 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll',1956 With a background of 17 inch cupid dolls, each representing a season of happiness, Olive Leech (June Jago) tries to stop the fatal quarrel between her lover, Roo Webster (Lloyd Berrell) and Barney…
Let's celebrate History Week 2017!
The Australian woman's mirror, October 18 1938 via Trove This year the History Council of NSW’s annual festival in the first week of September, History Week, is exploring popular culture. With tours, talks, exhibitions and more taking place across Sydney and New…
The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar
Wreck of Dunbar, South Head c1862-1863, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a939035 / PXA 1983, f.34) One hundred and sixty years ago, a large sailing vessel called the Dunbar was wrecked near the Gap, just south of Sydney Heads,…