Travelling across America, the country reveals a tapestry of contradictions. These were certainly evident in the lead up to Memorial Day, celebrated on the last Monday of May. In cemeteries and towns the bunting, flags and flowers come out, to remember the fallen and to welcome the beginning of summer. For some the weekend … Read more
by Francesca Beddie… Like many visitors to Washington DC, my first stop was the National Mall. There on a wet week day, most people stood in awe of the Lincoln Memorial; a few braved the rain to walk the length of the sombre 247 feet (75 meters) of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This is … Read more
Imogen Dixon-Smith (Master of Museum & Heritage Studies, University of Sydney) explains how her prize-winning essay came to be… The development of the paper I submitted to the Public History Prize in 2015 started in a university subject I was taking titled ‘The Idea of Heritage’. I was set the task of pursuing a … Read more
…by Stephen Gapps… The 17th of April 1816 is not a date etched in wider Australian memory nor even that of Sydneysiders concerned about their past. However it is imprinted in the memory of descendants of Dharawal and Gandangarra people who were massacred by a military expedition sent out on the orders of Governor … Read more
Ian Willis visits an artists’ retreat… What has history got to do with an artists’ retreat you might ask? Quite a bit as it turns out. I was recently invited to address such a gathering at Varroville in New South Wales; it was quite an enlightening and stimulating occasion. The three-day 2016 Artists’ Retreat was … Read more
… the latest in the occasional series introducing PHA NSW and ACT members. What is your current position/area of historical interest I am transitioning from full-time administrative work to part-time casual so that I can concentrate on building up a new career as a professional historian. I have wide-ranging interests but my main focus is … Read more
…Birgit Heilmann reports The 2015 Public History Prize was awarded to Imogen Dixon-Smith (pictured right) for her essay, Keeping up with the times: Complicating understandings of gender at the historic house Meroogal. The judges, current chair of the PHA NSW & ACT, Dr Mark Dunn, and Dr Catherine Bishop, Historical Studies Research Concentration Coordinator … Read more
by Francesca Beddie On 22 February the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story saying ‘the National Library of Australia has launched a major review of services, with key programs to be curtailed or cancelled amid staff cuts, as management struggles to deal with the Turnbull government’s efficiency dividend’. It reported that the library expects to … Read more
… by Ian Willis ‘Get to know your neighbourhood – you could be in for some surprises!’ says PHA member Katherine Knight, after picking up one of the volumes in the Kingsclear Books Pictorial History Series. A number of PHA members, including myself, have written for Kingsclear about particular localities, regions or local government … Read more
by Christa Ludlow… Bubonic plague in Sydney in January 1900 infected 303 people and by August had killed 103. The outbreak coincided neatly with the beginning of the Edwardian era and the rise of the “expert” in public life. I became interested in this part of Sydney’s history while I was researching for my … Read more