The Lord Mayor's Costume Balls in Sydney in 1857 and 1879 is a prototype of a project from the Australian National University that uses systematic humanities research methods and the Linked Data publication paradigm to investigate the prosopography of the socio-political landscape of Sydney 1850-1900.

In this project, we bring together information from several different existing datasets that provide complementary information about the social and political scene in Sydney, Australia in the mid- to late 1800s. The project is centred around the annual costume ball organised by the Lord Mayor, and we're focusing on the lists of guests and their costumes from 1857 and 1879. Ostensibly, a costume ball might seem to be a frivolous diversion - a ‘trifling event’ - with little historical significance but, in fact, they provide an important lens onto contemporary society. Indeed, as the Sydney Morning Herald's reporter put it, the events ‘make perceptible the true spirit of the time’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 9 July 1853).