Archive for November, 2025

She’s so pretty: the story of Pretty Sally’s Hill

She’s so pretty: the story of Pretty Sally’s Hill

November 19, 2025

Ask a librarian, Our stories, Victorian history:

For a few short years in the 1840s a woman named Sarah Smith made a little extra money offering accommodation and hospitality to travellers between Sydney and the yet-to-be declared Colony of Victoria. With a roof, a meal and perhaps a strong drink or two, Sarah’s House or Pretty Sally’s, as it came to be known, left a lasting mark on the Australian landscape.

Online Collection Spotlight: Oxford Academic Books

Online Collection Spotlight: Oxford Academic Books

November 13, 2025

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights:

Do you want to do a deep dive into medical folklore? Have you ever wondered why people make fun of Jazz? What were the building blocks of modern horror movies? Have you wondered why Asperger’s syndrome was removed from the DSM? Or thought about the social impact of the human papillomavirus vaccine? Do you need a primer on literary theory? On climate hazards? On planetary systems? And just what did Herman Melville’s short stories reveal about his thoughts on slavery? Oxford Academic has you covered.

On the case: Detective Piggott and the development of forensics

On the case: Detective Piggott and the development of forensics

November 3, 2025

Ask a librarian, People & professions, Such was life, Victorian history:

The early 1900s was an exciting time to be a detective. Innovations in science and technology, combined with the popularity of detective stories shifted crime fighting away from the seedy world of informers, which had influenced the early years of policing, towards the detection of crime using scientific methods and forensic evidence. Find out about how one Victorian detective contributed to the development of police forensics.