The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary
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 discovered previously untapped archives to tell a history of one of the most famous books in the world, celebrating the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People, the unsung heroes of the OED.
224th Lecture Series Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow
Date: Wednesday 11 March 2026
Time: 19:30 - 21:00
Venue: Charles Wilson Building, Lecture Theatre 201
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Professor Sarah Ogilvie, Oxford University
Sarah Ogilvie is Professor of Language and Lexicography at the University of Oxford. She is a linguist, lexicographer, and computer scientist who worked for many years as an editor on the Oxford English Dictionary. Her latest book is The Dictionary People: the unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary.
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 one of the most famous books in the world, celebrating the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People, the unsung heroes of the OED.