The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography was originally published in five print volumes between 1990 and 2000. It comprised 3000 biographical essays about a wide range of deceased New Zealanders who had come to prominence by 1960. The Dictionary went online in 2001. In 2010 it was merged with Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand to form the single largest reference work on New Zealand's history and society https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies
The combined Dictionary and Te Ara website is one of the largest works of scholarship ever undertaken in this country, and is unique in the world.
Since 2000 The Dictionary has been in hiatus, with the exception of a batch of 15 biographies that were published online in 2010-11. In 2017 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage decided to resume work on the Dictionary, and to publish a new batch of biographies online every year. The new programme commences with 20 new biographies of women which will be published in September this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
In this presentation, senior historian Tim Shoebridge - the Dictionary’s programme manager, will speak about the challenges posed and opportunities offered by this new chapter in the Dictionary’s life.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 6 June 2018.
An Open Conversation on a Secret History
Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand’: Jared Davidson
Adoption: From severance and secrecy to connection and openness
Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay
Te Motunui Epa – making history from the underground
‘An overview of New Zealand’s radical right tradition’: Matthew Cunningham
Archives in Place: Deep Histories in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station: Redmer Yska and Cherie Jacobson in conversation
Musicians, Myths and Manifestos
Solidarity and the Right to Strike
Making Space: A history of New Zealand women in architecture
New Zealand’s Foreign Service: A History
A Biography of Lake Tūtira
Women Will Rise! Recalling the Working Women’s Charter
Mahuru Māori: Māni Dunlop and Jamie Tahana
Shifting perspectives about colonial conflict: The Wairau Affray and the Battle of Boulcott’s Farm
With the Boys Overseas: radio listening during World War II and New Zealand’s first broadcast war correspondents
Learning in and from primary schools: Teaching Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories at Years 1 to 6
‘There was no honour in it’: Two aspects of New Zealand’s military history
The Platform: the radical legacy of the Polynesian Panthers
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