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Marjorie Jacobs

Australian historian (1915-2013)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ99337820
Source-derived summary

Marjorie Grace Jacobs (26 August 1915 – 12 July 2013) was an Australian historian and emeritus professor at the University of Sydney.

Early life and education

Jacobs was born in 1915 in Gordon, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. She was educated at Ravenswood School but, when that school was sold to the Methodist Church, she transferred to the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School at North Sydney. Jacobs lived at Women's College during her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney and in 1934 won the George Arnold Wood Memorial Prize for first year British history. In her second year she won the Frank Albert Prize with a high distinction in anthropology. She graduated with a BA Hons in 1936 and won a University Medal. Jacobs won the Frazer Scholarship for History in 1937 to work for her MA. In 1941 she won a second University Medal for her MA thesis on German colonialism in the Pacific.

Career

Jacobs joined the staff of Sydney University in 1938 as associate lecturer, appointed by Challis Professor of History, Stephen Henry Roberts, for four years. In 1943–44 she was employed by United States Army's Historical Section in Australia, where she researched medical services in the South-West Pacific. When General MacArthur moved from Australia, Jacobs returned to Sydney University where she received a tenured lectureship in 1945.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Marjorie Jacobs” as australian historian (1915-2013). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Marjorie, Jacobs and Australian.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1915, 2013, 1934, 1936—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1915-08-26. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Marjorie, Jacobs and Australian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Marjorie Jacobs”, the useful work is to connect “australian historian (1915-2013)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q99337820. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915, 2013, 1934 and 1936.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Marjorie Jacobs primary sources, Marjorie Jacobs archive and Marjorie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Marjorie Jacobs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.