The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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So long Sydney

Miss Australia 1957 Helen Wood farewelled at Mascot, March 1958, State Library of NSW (APA 05090)   30 June 2021 The Dictionary of Sydney is an incredible project. It all started back in 2005 when a group of historians and industry partners secured…

A huge crowd for a hanging: the end of John Knatchbull

Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (923.41/K67/2)   One of my very favourite letters in the collections of the State Library of NSW was written by a wool merchant by the name of Joseph Whitehead. In an 1838 letter to his uncle…

When a Spade’s a Spade: the hanging of John Hammell

Sydney Gazette, 5 May 1832, p2 via Trove   On 7 May 1832, John Hammell (also reported as John Hammill, John Haymell and Charles Hammell) was hanged for the murder of his boss George Williamson. Not everyone was sorry Williamson had been…

Brutality at Birch Grove

Headstone of Samuel and Esther Bradley, Devonshire Street Cemetery c1901, Ethel Foster, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON146/342) Research on the epitaph on a tombstone in Sydney's old Devonshire Street Cemetery led to the shocking story of the deaths of…

No honour among thieves…

Detail of Convicts embarking for Botany Bay, ca. 1790 by Thomas Rowlandson, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (SV/312) In Governor Arthur Phillip’s great outdoor gaol in Sydney Cove, most eyes were on the convicts. It was logical to assume that…

Robert Clancy, The Long Enlightenment: Australian Science from its Beginning to the mid-20th Century

Robert Clancy, The Long Enlightenment: Australian Science from its Beginning to the mid-20th Century Halstead Press and the Royal Societies of Australia, 184 pp., ISBN: 9781925043532, h/bk, AUS$49.99 Robert Clancy – who would be familiar to many through his work as a…

Kathy Bowrey, Copyright, Creativity, Big Media and Cultural Value: Incorporating the Author

Kathy Bowrey, Copyright, Creativity, Big Media and Cultural Value: Incorporating the Author Routledge, 218 pp., ISBN: 9780429201035, h/bk, AUS$252.00, e/bk, AUS$62.00 According to the Copyright Agency, copyright is ‘a form of intellectual property that protects the original expression of ideas. It enables creators…

Hanging out with the hangman

Nosey Bob, the common hangman, The Bulletin, 31 January 1880, p4 Today is the anniversary of the death of Robert Rice Howard, the hangman for New South Wales from the 1870s until 1904, who died on 3 February 1906. Listen to…

Amanda Laugesen, Rooted: An Australian History of Bad Language

Amanda Laugesen, Rooted: An Australian History of Bad Language NewSouth Publishers, 2020, 314 pp. ISBN: 9781742236636, p/bk, AUD$32.99 'Oh, that book is for Rachel.' It was a statement. A bit like 'it’s started to rain' or 'it’s time to put the kettle…

A Scuffle on the Scaffold: the execution of Thomas Kelly

'The Gallows' from the Keep Yard / the Scaffold at Darlinghurst, drawn by a Confinee c1890. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (SSV1/Gao/Darh/2) Any event that involves a large number of people, no matter how carefully planned, carries a risk of…