
Summary
What do three murderers, a Glasgow factory inspector, and Karl Marx’s daughter have in common? They all helped create the Oxford English Dictionary. Begun in 1858, the OED has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men. But the Dictionary didn’t just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public and was one of the world’s first crowd-sourced projects. Sarah Ogilvie has discovered previously untapped archives to tell a people’s history of the OED. In this lecture, she tells the story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world – and celebrates the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People, the unsung heroes of the OED.