Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Award of ADB Medal to Alan Shaw for long and distinguished service (2002)

Citation

Professor Alan Shaw has been associated with the Australian Dictionary of Biography since the project’s earliest days.  One of the group of historians and others called together by Sir Keith Hancock in 1957 to discuss the ambitious venture, he willingly accepted a leading role, joining the national committee and the editorial board (and, nominally, the NSW working party, though he left Sydney for Monash before it became active).  After some initial contention, planning for the first series was in place by 1962, when Douglas Pike took office as general editor.  Two period or section editors were appointed, Alan Shaw taking responsibility for the period 1788-1815 and Manning Clark for the years 1815-1850.  The two volumes, which appeared in 1966 and 1967, set a standard which justified the worth of this 'Commonwealth-wide venture based on consultation and cooperation', as Douglas Pike described the A.D.B.  Shaw’s own major entries, on Arthur, Bligh, Forster and King, were models of succinct clarity; he has since written a total of ten entries.  Less obvious, but substantial and important, are his numerous contributions to the A.D.B.’s corrigenda, and his assiduity in suggesting names for the supplementary volume of people who should have been included in earlier volumes.  He properly sees the A.D.B. not as a single publication, but as a living record of current scholarship.

One of the longest-serving members of the dictionary’s editorial board–his name is listed in all the fourteen volumes issued before 1999–Alan Shaw made thoughtful, constructive and precise contributions to its deliberations.  His place among the group of scholars whose work ensured that the Australian Dictionary of Biography became a major national achievement deserves recognition and honour, of which this medal is a symbol.