DAVID MORGAN is an accredited Associate Professional Historian in the PHA (NSW) with a long association as a public historian, both professionally and in a voluntary capacity, with the City of Sydney History Unit and Dictionary of Sydney. For the latter, David was a contributing historian for the First Fleet Project, edited biographies and portraits of all past and present Aldermen of Sydney City Council, and logged oral history interview tapes dealing with aspects of Sydney history.
As a volunteer, David wrote entries for the Dictionary of Sydney on Sydney suburbs, assembled a biographical index of notable Sydney persons, performed entity harvesting, served as a multimedia researcher, and performed SEO tasks. At the City of Sydney History Unit, David researched and wrote historical walking tours of Sydney districts, which are distributed through Council offices and Sydney Visitor Centres as well as published online and via mobile app. David also researched and wrote a virtual exhibition on the City of Sydney website commemorating the centenary of the death of notable Chinese-Australian businessman and philanthropist Quong Tart.
His book The Australian Miscellany (Random House, 2005) was an entertaining collection of facts, figures and stories about Australia, which sold more than 6,000 copies and went into a second printing. His blog A Sydney Anthology: The City in Art and Literature captures Sydney, past and present, through its literature and art. Both are defined in their broadest senses: fiction, reportage, poetry, song, painting and photography are all found there.
Currently, David is optimising multimedia captions for the City of Sydney Archives as a volunteer and is employed as a Questions Writer for ITV’s Channel Seven quiz show The Chase Australia. He has worked professionally across a wide range of industries as a researcher, writer, fact-checker, proofreader and editor, broadcast monitor, press analyst, IT analyst, content provider and programmer.
He has contributed to St. John’s Online’s collections, St. John’s First Fleeters and Old Parramattans.
Publications
- “John Williams: The Mayor of Reinvention,” St. John’s Online, (2021)
- “Thomas Chipp: The Marine,” St. John’s Online, (2020)
- “Thomas Freeman: Minding the Store,” St. John’s Online, (2020)
- “Thomas Daveney: The Tyrant of Toongabbie,” St. John’s Online, (2019)
- “Christopher Palmer: Perils of a Purser,” St. John’s Online, (2019)
- “Augustus Alt: The Baron,” St. John’s Online, (2016)
- “Henry Dodd: The Faithful Servant,” St. John’s Online, (2016)
- “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship
- “HMS Supply,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/hms_supply
- “PARADE: The Oxford Street Historical Walking Tour,” City of Sydney (History Program) Sixth Edition, (November 2011).
- “PASSION: Sydney’s Wild Side Historical Walking Tour,” City of Sydney (History Program) Sixth Edition, (November 2011).
- “PORT: Pyrmont Historical Walking Tour,” City of Sydney (History Program) Sixth Edition, (November 2011).
- “PRESERVATION: The Glebe Historical Walking Tour,” City of Sydney (History Program) Sixth Edition, (November 2011).
- The Australian Miscellany: Containing a Great Many Astonishing Facts, (Random House Australia, 2005).
Qualifications
- MA (with merit), Major: History University of Sydney
- MBA University of New South Wales
- BCom, Major: Accounting University of New South Wales
Affiliations
- Professional Historians Association (NSW)
Contributions
- Augustus Alt: The Baron
- Thomas Chipp: The Marine
- Thomas Daveney: The Tyrant of Toongabbie
- Henry Dodd: The Faithful Servant
- Thomas Freeman: Minding the Store
- Christopher Palmer: Perils of a Purser
- John Williams: The Mayor of Reinvention
Follow David Morgan on Twitter: @Elitism
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