Portrait of Margaret Olley

Birthday profile

Margaret Olley

Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist (died 2011)

Born
June 24, 1923
Died
July 26, 2011
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1923

About Margaret Olley

Margaret Hannah Olley was an Australian painter. She held over ninety solo exhibitions during her lifetime. Olley was twice the subject of an Archibald Prize winning painting; the first in 1948 by William Dobell, who painted her in a borrowed wedding dress made of parachute silk, and the other in 2011 by Ben Quilty. In 2006, Olley was awarded the degree Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa by the University of Newcastle. There is a comprehensive photographic record of her studio and work, shot on the morning she died, by artist photographer Greg Weight. On 13 July 2006 she donated more works to the Art Gallery of New South Wales; her donations included more than 130 works worth $7 million.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Margaret Olley timeline

  1. Olley was twice the subject of an Archibald Prize winning painting; the first in 1948 by William Dobell, who painted her in a borrowed wedding dress made of parachute silk, and the other in 2011 by Ben Quilty.
  2. In 2006, Olley was awarded the degree Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa by the University of Newcastle.
  3. On 13 July 2006 she donated more works to the Art Gallery of New South Wales; her donations included more than 130 works worth $7 million.

The world when Margaret Olley was born

Margaret Olley was born in 1923. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1923

  • #1 song"Yes! We Have No Bananas"
  • Top movieThe Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)
  • Best-selling bookBlack Oxen – Gertrude Atherton

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst 24 Hours of Le Mans race
  • Top headlineTime magazine publishes its first issue
  • Technology milestoneFirst neon signs appear in the United States
  • Defining fadDance marathons
  • Notable inventionFrozen food process (Clarence Birdseye)
  • World population1.93 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding / Calvin Coolidge
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population111.9M

1923 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Margaret Olley's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19232026
Gas$0.22$3.45/gal
Average home$5,700$435,000
Average income$3,380$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population111.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.