Author Archives: dgm

I’ve previously written about the heads used on Queen Victoria’s coins, and how there had been an abortive attempt to introduce a common currency throughout the British Empire. One place where it didn’t work was Jamaica, where the local Afro … Continue reading →

A few days ago I was on the number 16 tram in Melbourne rattling up Balaclava Road, and half day dreaming while looking out the window. When the tram got as far as the intersection of Balaclava and Orrong roads … Continue reading →

Yesterday, as well as being the last day of the year was a beautiful cool summer Sunday morning and ideal for a walk before it got too hot. For a change we decided to walk up to the old Lunatic … Continue reading →

The answer is, of course, it depends. Clearly it was very affordable for the middle classes but possibly less so for the poorer elements of society. Most writers suggest that it was the equivalent of something between fifty cents and … Continue reading →

We’ve recently been watching first series Victoria on the ABC, which has finally shown it eighteen months after its first release in the UK. In one of the early episodes Victoria has her hair done in an elaborate style with … Continue reading →

(not actually the penny post – it’s from Victoria where the post cost 2d in the 1890’s …) I’ve written about the significance of the penny post before, but one thing that comes through from both accounts of the Madeleine … Continue reading →

I continued to be intrigued by the pharma tyewriter and ended up doing some searching on Google and eBay (a useful source of comparison information) which let me know that examples such as this were pretty rare. I ended up … Continue reading →

One of the artifacts in the old dispensary where I’m currently working on the Pharmacy documentation project is an old Remington portable typewriter that was used in the 1930’s to type labels to be stuck on bottles of prescription medicine … Continue reading →

Queen Victoria reigned for over sixty years. At the start of her reign, in 1837, passenger railways were still a novelty, the British Empire was half the size it would eventually become, and Australia was a gaggle of small squabbling … Continue reading →

Since I came back from overseas I’ve been back working on the Dow’s Pharmacy documentation project. And one thing that has struck me is just how many late nineteenth and early twentieth century pickle jars have been reused to store … Continue reading →