The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography

Abstract

Fifty years after the publication of the first volume of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, in mid-2016 participants from around the English-speaking world gathered in Canberra for the conference ‘“True Biographies of Nations”? Exploring the Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography’.1 Organised by the National Centre of Biography at The Australian National University (ANU) and supported by the National Library of Australia (NLA), the conference provided a rare opportunity for those involved in the production of dictionaries of national biography to come together, along with archivists, librarians, fellow researchers, and members of the public, to reflect on the purpose and place of national biographies in the twenty-first century. The aim was to explore the cultural journeys taken by dictionaries of national biography, to consider the challenges and opportunities facing such projects today, and to gauge the extent of their development into truly national biographies. Show more