History, No. 157 September 2023 Abstract This article examines the documentary heritage collection of Miss Porter’s House in Newcastle, a rare and comprehensive record of women’s lives across the twentieth century. Through letters, postcards, notebooks, scrapbooks, and everyday records, it reconstructs the experiences of the Porter women and their careful documentation of domestic life over several decades. The collection reveals patterns of education, work, leisure, and hous

Sensibilities , No. 69 - Jane Austen Society of Australia (JASA) December 2024 Abstract This article examines the surprising absence of sermons themselves in Jane Austen’s novels, despite the prominent presence of clergymen characters and the centrality of preaching within eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Anglican life. Through close readings of Austen’s works, particularly Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park , it explores how references to sermons and devotional

JASA Chronicle , Jane Austen Society of Australia (JASA) December 2025 Abstract This article presents a comparative reading of two memorable characters of social aspiration: Hyacinth Bucket from the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Mrs Elton from Jane Austen’s Emma . By placing these figures side by side, the article explores the enduring comic archetype of the socially ambitious and self-important character across different historical and cultural contex

Friends Review , Australian Federation of Friends of Museums (AFFM) December 2025 Abstract This review examines Anne-Marie Condé’s The Prime Minister’s Potato and Other Essays , highlighting her distinctive approach to uncovering overlooked lives through archives and material culture. Drawing on her long career in Australian museums, Condé brings a “miniaturist” sensibility to her work, focusing on small, fragmentary stories that reveal broader historical and social patterns.

Friends Review , Australian Federation of Friends of Museums (AFFM) August 2025 Abstract This article explores the museums of the Panama Canal as sites for interpreting one of the most significant engineering projects of the twentieth century and the complex human histories behind it. Focusing on the Panama Canal Museum and the Afro-Antillean Museum in Panama City, it highlights how these institutions present the construction of the Canal alongside the experiences of the dive