Author Archives: dgm

In Victoria, there are still quite a few  nineteenth century post boxes around. There’s two common types a cylindrical model with a metal crown on on top and a square design which sometimes has a separate slot for posting newspapers. … Continue reading →

J had come across some pictures of Lake Tyrell, a salt lake out in Mallee in the west of the state, and thought the landscapes might make a suitable subject for a painting or two. At the same time I’d … Continue reading →

(digitised 1880’s map from The National Library of Scotland) When I went down an internet rabbit hole about crime and nineteenth century railway carriages, I mentioned that I had come across a report of an incident on the Montrose to … Continue reading →

Train travel revolutionised life for Victorians. Suddenly it became possible for people on modest incomes to travel more than they could comfortably walk in a day, and in a shorter time, be it for a school teacher to visit friends … Continue reading →

A lot of people tend to assume I have some sort of a degree in computing, life sciences, archaeology or archival studies, history even, and while it’s true to say I’ve spent time working in jobs associated with these fields, … Continue reading →

Actually there were no dead Egyptians, coffins yes, but no dead Egyptians. The National Gallery of Victoria had partnered with the British Museum to bring a collection of ancient Egyptian monumental sculpture and some other artefacts to its winter exhibition … Continue reading →

It’s usually said that crinolines went out of fashion in the late 1860s. Now we all know fashions change, but it’s an interesting observation that crinolines begin to go out of fashion about the same time as indoor plumbing, and … Continue reading →

Winter has been cold and seemingly never ending, so a few weeks ago we decided to go on a short break to FNQ. As we’d been to Europe last year, and for some other reasons, we had a pile of … Continue reading →

Over on one of my other blogs I mentioned that I’ve been trying to identify the provenance of some photographs from the Spanish civil war including this one of a group of Milicianas, young women republican soldiers The young woman … Continue reading →

I have been down an internet rabbit hole with this one. I was reading an Italian novel (in translation) and it mentioned the last Italian cavalry charge as taking place in 1942 at Poloj, in what is now Croatia, where … Continue reading →