On the ‘shick’ in Little Lon
Buildings & streets, Social life & customs, Such was life:
Of all the slums in inner Melbourne, ‘Little Lon’, was the most notorious. But there was more to the precinct than met the eye…
Such was life
Blondin and his imitators
People & professions, Such was life:
In the 1870s, a visiting French tightrope walker inspired others to try the same- often with disastrous results.
The marvellous and macabre Waxworks, part one: ‘…the more murderers, the more it thrives.’
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Before true crime podcasts and books on serial killers, where did Melburnians go for their taste of the macabre? To the waxworks of course.
A lesser known story of the Syme family
Collection Care, People & professions, Preservation, Such was life:
Found within the family papers of The Age editor-in-chief David Syme, are a set of letters that give a small insight into the women of the Syme family.
The collar king
People & professions, Such was life, War:
A chance find in an opportunity shop sets the finder on the trail of Melbourne’s former ‘Collar King’.
‘I’m the boy that brings the news, so a Christmas box I won’t refuse.’
People & professions, Social life & customs, Such was life:
Don’t forget the postie, milkman and garbo!
The Chief Librarian’s casting vote
People & professions, Such was life:
It is quite a tenuous connection but could our Library claim some credit for the exploration of the Antarctic?
Cataloguing detective work, exploring the SLV ‘unknowns’
Can you help us identify people and places in our digitised collections?
Murder, mayhem and misdeeds: read all about it in the Police News
Social life & customs, Such was life:
The ‘Police News’ had nothing to do with the police- it was a scandalous Melbourne weekly publication which relished depicting all manner of crime.
Duels in Melbourne
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Early one Thursday morning in June 1839, two young men at an empty racecourse stood 16 paces from one another armed with pistols. They were preparing to engage in Melbourne’s first duel.
