Camden Park House
Took my family to Sydney for the weekend, ostensibly for a quick sightseeing stopover but actually so that we could attend the annual open day at Camden Park House. We were lucky with the rain, and managed to explore the house and extensive gardens before it poured. * * * * * During the first…
Elizabeth Macarthur’s Quilt at the National Gallery of Victoria
The gallery had sold out of the glossy, colour catalogue for Making the Australian Quilt: 1800–1950 by the time I saw the exhibition last week. But I had a terrific chat with the young woman serving at the museum shop while I placed an order to have the catalogue mailed out (at a discounted rate,…
Mrs Macquarie and the tragic accident
One of the problems of being a researcher of women’s history is all the dead children. Over and over again the archives yield stories of families broken by illness, accident and disease – so many stories that they are in danger of seeming commonplace. But of course the death of each child was, to…
The Cook and the Curator
The Cook and the Curator is a wonderful blog published by Sydney Living Museums. Sydney Living Museums cares for a group of 12 of the most important historic houses, gardens and museums in NSW. Formerly the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, the new identity was launched in 2013 and attempts to: …bring our museums to…