The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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Learning your lessons

The most recent upload to the Dictionary has quite an educational theme, with articles addressing three very different strands of Sydney's pedagogical history. Kate Matthew's piece on Governesses outlines the culture and practices of the education that most middle-class children, especially…

The orgy that never happened

One of our more provocative articles has just been published: The myth of Sydney's foundational orgy, by Grace Karskens. Grace outlines the prevailing myth that when women convicts arrived onshore a bacchanalian scene of sex and debauchery ensued. It is certainly…

Remembering

ANZAC War Memorial, Hyde Park, 15 September 1930 by Charles Bruce Dellit, courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW ref:a128948 / XV1/Mon War /1 The grandest of Sydney's World War I memorials is also one of the last, only…

New places in the Dictionary

Pedestrian crossing Darlinghurst Road outside the Tabou nightclub at night, Kings Cross 1961 courtesy National Archives of Australia A1200, L38208 We like to put up some new suburb and place entries every rebuild, and this one is no exception. Probably our most…

New faces in the Dictionary of Sydney

We haven't yet told you that the Dictionary was regenerated in early March, because we've been so busy. Over the next few blog posts, I'll take you through the new articles and images that have been added to the site. We've…

Going to the show

Souvenir of the Show, The Australian Women's Weekly, 24 April 1963, p11 New multimedia material was added to Kate Darian-Smith's article on Sydney's famous Royal Easter Show in our last build, and as always, the National Library of Australia's Trove was…

Heroic, forceful and fearless

One of our authors, Randi Svensen, who has written about Tugboats for the Dictionary of Sydney, has just had her full length history of Australian tugboats, Heroic, Forceful and Fearless: Australia's Tugboat Heritage,  published by Citrus Press, in Sydney. The tug…

Strange but true

if you haven't read Mark Dunn's entry in the Dictionary about Henri L'Estrange, balloonist, tightrope artists and bungler, you've missed out. As a packed room found out last night during Library Up Late at Customs House Library, you've missed even…

Technical trouble

Courtesy State Library of Victoria, Acc No: H82.254/60 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/45481 Readers may have noticed that the images and the 'Cite this' link in the Dictionary are not working quite correctly in Internet Explorer 8.  Unfortunately, clicking on an image to view the…

We are part of Trove!

The Dictionary's articles have been included in the National Library of Australia's invaluable Trove service for the first time, and we are thrilled to be playing a small part in this important national endeavour. Of course, we've been correcting away on…