Project blog

We all know that the Trove newspaper database is a rich resource for historical research, but how can we make best use of it for this project? A quick search on ‘Mosman’ for the years 1914-1918 returns more than 20,000 articles — clearly we need a more strategic approach!

The Build-a-thon is fast approaching. It’ll be a jam-packed day of thinking, linking, learning and making. Not sure what to expect? Well neither are we — there’s a basic outline below, but the day will be shaped by your interests and enthusiasms.

Maggie Patton gave us a look at some of the original WWI materials held by the State Library of NSW last Friday. As a collection it’s historic in its own right; the Library was collecting letters and diaries of Australian soldiers even before the armistice went into effect on 11 November 1918.

This photograph is just one of the thousands of photographs of Australian and other allied soldiers taken during World War I that have been discovered in France, in a find hailed as “wonderful and thrilling” by military historians.

It was a pleasure to meet with author and historian George Franki on Friday. I am reading his book on Australia’s most decorated soldier Mad Harry published in 2003 but more recently he has produced a fine work remembering Mosman’s dead in the Great War.