On this page you'll find abstracts of the presentations made at the conference, plus full papers where available. Other items include the Conference Foreword by Baron (Asa) Briggs, and poster presentations shown during the conference.

Papers are available in Microsoft Word (.doc) and PDF format - click on an icon to open a document, or right-click on an icon and choose 'Save target as' (or 'Save link as') to download the document directly to your disk. Alternatively, download all the papers as a zip (compressed) file in Word or PDF format.

For a list of presentations in chronological order (with links to papers) see our programme page. For short clips of presentations and other events, see the movie.

Index - click on a presentation name to see the details.

INTRODUCTIONS:

Baron Briggs of Lewes

Briggs, Asa (Baron Briggs of Lewes)

Foreword to the Conference

Paper:

Dr Peter Ford MBE

Ford, Dr Peter MBE
Conference Co-convenor

Welcome speech at opening night reception,
Roman Baths, Bath.

Paper:

CONFERENCE PAPERS:

Dr Robert Anderson

Anderson, Dr Robert
President, Association of Independent Libraries (AIL)

Presidential Address to the 2010 AIL AGM

Sat 26th Sept

Paper:

Anderson, Dr Robert (pictured above)
Vice-President, Clare Hall, Cambridge

"Where are the Mechanics Museums?"

Sat 26th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

When I started work in 2002 on the collections which had been created by mechanics institutes, including trying to understand the uses to which these collections had been put, I was under the impression that in my wanderings and peregrinations I would come across a number of intact mechanics museums, or failing that, remnants of them.

The paper which I read for Mechanics Worldwide at the Prahan Mechanics Institute in 2004 considered the establishment of these museums in the context of eighteenth century precursors, which were of a somewhat different type. At the end of my paper I mentioned the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia, which still has a collection, and which I was starting to explore, and I thought I would come across others which I would be able to investigate. I have to admit that I have been disappointed. that I have only managed to trace three collections which remain in anything like their original nineteenth century state. In this paper today I shall be talking about these collections, and suggesting reasons why so few are still with us.

Stephen Bird

Bird, Stephen
Director of Bath Heritage Services

"The Cultural Heritage of Bath"

Fri 25th Sept (at the Guildhall, Bath).

Paper:

Abstract:

The City of Bath is built around Britain's only hot springs which rise in a bend of the valley of the River Avon. It's very name indicates its dependence on this natural phenomenon for much of its 2000-year life. Thousands of flint microliths found in and around the three springs suggest that bands of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers gathered at the springs, perhaps stalking animals attracted by the minerals deposited by the hot water. Coins of the Dobunni, the west country tribe in this area in the century leading up to the Roman invasion of Britain, have also been found in the main hot spring.

But it was the Roman who first built substantial structures around the springs, in the 1st century AD, and from that moment on Bath became a destination for pilgrims, the sick, the curious and those in search of pleasure. Stephen Bird's presentation will look at how the fortunes of Bath over the subsequent 2000 years, driven by the ebb and flow of its popularity, has resulted in an urban landscape unrivalled in its drama and beauty designated in 1987 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site - "a masterpiece of creative genius whose protection must be the concern of all."

Roger Brien

Brien, Roger
Devon & Exeter Institution

"Devon and Exeter Institution - past present and future"

Paper:

Sat 26th Sept

Abstract:

Last year a national paper ran a competition: Sum up Britain today in five words. My favourite entry was ‘ Ipso Fatso, Bingo, Tesco, ASBO’. If that really reflects modern society in Britain today, what future for independent libraries, let alone other cultural jewels in the British crown? This paper deals with the Devon & Exeter Institution, its past, its present and hopefully, its bright future, but what is said here will have many echoes across the heritage library sector.

Dr Ann Brooks

Brooks, Dr Ann
Formerly with the Portico Library, Manchester , UK

"Science, Liberality and good taste' : The nineteenth century movement for Subscription Botanic Gardens"

Paper:

Fri 25th Sept

Abstract:

The founders of the subscription botanic gardens were inspired by the Enlightenment and the rise of science especially botany. Though botany was the lowest ranking of the sciences - merely regarded as cataloguing- it was an accessible pursuit for many members of society across the classes. Allied to this was botany's relationship to the religious beliefs of the day. Many of the original founders of these gardens were non-conformists especially Unitarians.

In Manchester this were one of the groups that also founded, amongst others, the Portico Library, the Mechanics Institute and the Statistical Society. Unlike these Societies, the subscription botanic gardens had an extra dimension. They were exclusive and though subscribing to the belief that the Garden would be open to all the cost of subscription in reality excluded all but the upper classes in the cities I studied; Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Hull, Birmingham and Sheffield.

Stuart Burroughs

Burroughs, Stuart
Museum of Bath At Work, UK

"The Life & Work of Isaac Pitman, a Bath Resident"

Paper:

Thu 24th Sept

Abstract:

Isaac Pitman was a mid-Victorian modernist and his development of a workable and accessible form of shorthand devised for a world of the future where domestic and commercial activity could be streamlined by removing the need for time consuming longhand communication. Although Pitmans shorthand system was not devised in Bath, it was in the city five years later in 1845, that the first instruction manuals and literature were produced at the First Phonetic Institute.

Later work on spelling reform and his advocacy of a phonetic system to compliment his shorthand system was less successful but his work laid the basis for a highly successful printing business, which survived into the 1980s and a world famous shorthand system for secretarial and office work. A non-smoker and anti-vivisectionist he was one of the first Britons to have his voice recorded on a wax cylinder.

Tom Butler-Bowdon

Butler-Bowdon, Tom
Oxford, UK

"Samuel Smiles and a Philosophy of Success"

Mon 28th Sept

Paper:

Speaker Bio:

Abstract:

Smiles' 'Self-Help' (1859) was seminal to the creation of the personal success field, yet his anecdotal style did not lay a foundation for success as a scientific discipline. Instead, self-help became a popular phemenon based on the seminar and informercial, garnering a reputation for flakiness and unreliability.

Yet recent findings, particularly in the psychology field, hold out a promise for personal success to become a proper discipline, thus fulfilling Smiles' intention of raising the expectations and possibilities of the average person.

Scott Cherry

Cherry, Scott
Loughborough University, UK

"Is reading a self-help book an occasion of self-help?"

Mon 28th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

This paper looks at the self-help book as a publishing phenomenon and a textual form. Through a detailed empirical analysis of a corpus of classic and contemporary self-help books, including Samuel Smiles' Self-Help, and drawing on previous work (Cherry, 2008a; 2008b), it explores how the very activity of reading transforms the status of a self-help book. One the one hand, reading a self-help book is a requirement for a reader to complete their quest for self-help; on the other, it is insufficient for the successful completion of that quest.

References:

Cherry, S. (2008) Parody as a performative analytic: Beyond performativity as a metadiscourse [50 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 9(2), Art. 25, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802258.

Cherry, S. (2008) 'The ontology of a self-help book: A paradox of its own existence'. Social Semiotics, 18(3), 337-348.

Richard Clarke

Clarke, Richard
Faculty of Life-long Learning, Birkbeck, University of London, r.clarke@bbk.ac.uk

"The London Mechanics' Institute - Birkbeck after (George) Birkbeck"

Mon 28th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

The London Mechanics' Institute is notable not only for its influence on similar bodies elsewhere, but for the contention which surrounded its formation in 1823. The story of the eclipse of its initiators Thomas Hodgskin and J C Robertson by the liberal modernisers Brougham, Place and others is reasonably well known. Well before George Birkbeck's own death in 1841 the battle for ‘popular control' had largely been lost (although it continued to surface in different forms for the next century). ‘Useful knowledge', pioneered in Birkbeck's own early lectures in Glasgow, promoted widely in the Mechanics' Magazine, and elevated to a social movement in Brougham's Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, had become almost hegemonic and was manifest in its most systematic form in William Ellis' Birkbeck Schools, launched in the summer of 1848 (not without opposition) in the lecture theatre of the Institute.

In 1851 a ‘third Birkbeck' appeared (in addition to the Institute and the Schools) whose history to date has received little attention. By the 1850s, ‘penny savings banks' had been set up in a number of mechanics' institutes, however the ‘Birkbeck Bank' was very different. Effectively an ultra vires umbrella for the Birkbeck Building Society and the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society, it became a significant constitutent of the English property based financial system. Until at least 1885, it had a close relationship with the London Mechanics' Institution, sharing more than the name of George Birkbeck. It occupied joint premises, had overlapping governance and the Bank's monies sustained the College at critical times of financial crisis. It also reflected an ideology of progressive philanthropic liberalism that was at times hotly contested by the radical champions of the social classes that both Institute and Bank had been initially formed to assist. Just as the Mechanics' Institution was attacked from its foundation for having betrayed the ideals of its radical originators, the Birkbeck Building Society was attacked by Frederick Engels' in The Housing Question (1872) for being irrelevant to the improvement of living conditions for the urban poor.

The educational endeavours of Birkbeck's Mechanics' Institution and the financial enterprise of the Birkbeck Bank reflected parallel motivations and concealed comparable tensions. The Mechanics' Institution embodied two distinct and contending visions of the role of working-class education within alternative political programmes of social change and political emancipation, versus individual betterment and self-realisation. The Birkbeck Bank's initial vision of property ownership as a means of extending the franchise in order to change society gave way to one of financial prudence and owner-occupation as a route to social stability through personal fulfilment. In these conflicts between radicalism and liberal reform, the latter was, perhaps inevitably, ascendant.

The physical apotheosis of the Birkbeck Bank was its extraordinary edifice erected between 1885 and 1902 on the site of the old Mechanics' Institute. This architectural ‘phantasmagoria' of the Birkbeck buildings (described as ‘a sort of pictorial Samuel Smiles') became a major commercial centre; its dome was bigger than that of the Bank of England and adorned, like the Bank's façade with symbolic bees ‘B's and busts (including one of Birkbeck himself) signifying industry, foresight and knowledge - an iconographic paean to nineteenth century self-help,. The building was replaced in 1962 with the modernist headquarters of the Westminster Bank (which had taken over the assets of the Birkbeck on its collapse in 1911) and what remains of ‘The Birkbeck' (including its archives) now belongs to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The complex and problematic ideology of self-help lives on however (not least in the changing educational provision of Birkbeck College) and its nineteenth-century physical residue can be seen in the Birkbeck roads, mews, ways, places and gardens - and schools - which still feature in the landscape of London.Header of the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society First Annual Report for 1853 (by kind permission of Royal Bank of Scotland)

Janet Cunliffe-Jones

Cunliffe-Jones, Janet
Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, UK

"The Perilous Act of Lecturing"

Fri 25th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

Clara Lucas Balfour, 1808 - 1878, prolific travelling lecturer.

In the middle decades of the nineteenth century it was extremely rare for a woman to make a public speech, much more so to make a career as a lecturer.

Yet in those decades Clara Lucas Balfour (CLB) was very well-known as a lecturer in Mechanics' Institutes and similar organisations, from Falmouth to Leeds, or Ipswich to Dublin speaking sometimes to large audiences, and often being invited back repeatedly to the same Institutions.

How did a woman who started life with few advantages - she was born probably illegitimate - with little formal schooling, and married before she was sixteen, succeed?

This lecture will examine her career and the subjects of her lectures, and consider why she was generally so well received.

Details from her surviving letters and diaries throw light on the practicalities of working as a lecturer at that time: planning a tour without the use of phones; travel and transport, and the financial arrangements between Institution and lecturer.

Clara Lucas Balfour was my great, great grandmother. I studied her work for my M.Ed dissertation for Liverpool University.

Dwyer, Judith
Berwick Mechanics Institute & Free Library (BMIFL), Australia

"Berwick Mechanics Institute & Free Library & its Heritage Collections, including the Casey Collection - the Private Library of Lord and Lady Casey"

(Paper not available)

Abstract:

The Berwick Mechanics' Institute & Free Library was established in the 1860's when Berwick was a remote village, 28 miles from Melbourne, with a population in the hundreds. Today Berwick is part of the growth corridor of southeast Melbourne, with a population in excess of 220,000 and increasing by an estimated 3% every year. The Mechanics' Institute has operated continuously since its establishment, and continues today as a free lending library service, operated by a team of enthusiastic volunteers. The Heritage Collections are a feature of the library. The "rare books" area consists of a selection of books and periodicals that have survived from the 19th century, and reveal the reading interests of the early members.

The Casey Collection is comprised of books, periodicals, ephemera, art works, and other items that were part of Lord and Lady Casey's home "Edrington" in Berwick. Lord Casey was Governor-General of Australia (1965-1969) - an appointment that was the culmination of a public life of service as statesman, politician, cabinet minister, diplomat, governor of Bengal, to name a few of his official positions. Lady Casey was an artist and author, an active participant in Lord Casey's public life, and well-known for her support of the arts. The books reflect their lives and interests, and many volumes have inscriptions from international political and cultural figures, including "Mahatma" Gandhi. The collection at the Berwick Mechanics' Institute represents local cultural life from early European settlement until the present day, with the Casey Collection a tangible link between Berwick and national and international events.

Geoffrey Forster

Forster, Geoffrey
The Leeds Library, UK

"Samuel Smiles in Leeds"

(Paper not available)

Sat 26th Sept

Abstract:

Samuel Smiles lived and worked in Leeds from 1838 until 1853. He arrived to take up the post of editor of the radical Leeds Times newspaper and over the next four years would write 600 editorials including many campaigning for factory and parliamentary reform. But the fifteen years Smiles spent in Leeds witnessed a major change in his personal philosophy as he abandoned political change for self reform.

He became a great supporter of mechanics' institutes, public libraries and schools and the lectures he gave to a local mutual improvement society were to form the basis of Self Help itself. Such was the local affection for Samuel Smiles that he was remembered by lengthy newspaper notices on his death in 1904 and on the centenary of the publication of his most famous book in 1959. He is still commemorated by two plaques - one in the University of Leeds and the other on the Leeds Institute building.

Prof Dale Gordon

Gordon, Dane R
Dept. of Philosophy, College of Liberal Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY14618, USA
drggla@rit.edu

"Contemporary Higher Education From the Perspective of an Institute of Technology"

Fri 25th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

An institute such as RIT looks to its history and its future. Its history is a guide to what to try again, what to avoid, what to continue. Its future, as we move further into the twenty-first century, offers a wide range of educational opportunities in all fields of science and technology, and the relationship of those to art, music, literature, philosophy and the humanities generally.

The challenge is how to take advantage of those opportunities without losing touch with the Institute’s objectives, and how to be innovative and creative when responding to these opportunities within practical boundaries. Most important for an institute of technology is its responsibility to teach students to be aware of the consequences for human and other life, and the environment, of the technical and scientific subjects which they study.

Peter Hoare

Hoare, Peter
Heritage Libraries Forum

"Mechanics, Artisans, Operatives, Labourers and others"

Sat 26th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

The midland county of Nottinghamshire is a good example of the variety of library provision for the working classes in nineteenth-century England. Mechanics' institutions and other libraries (under a variety of names) were established from the 1820s onwards both in Nottingham and in other towns such as Mansfield, Newark and Worksop, and in smaller centres such as the village of Edwinstowe in the heart of Sherwood Forest. Most of these have now disappeared without trace; some were absorbed into the Free Libraries from the 1860s onwards, and a few survive largely as social clubs without a serious library function.

There were some particular types of library not widely found elsewhere, such as the Operatives' Libraries in Nottingham, several of which are known to have been established in public houses soon after 1835, as a highly democratic break-away movement from the middle-class philanthropy of the Artizans' Library and the Mechanics' Institution. In the village of Upton, the Rev. F.W. Naylor established a library for all inhabitants, not least the labouring classes, which had a number of branch outlets; he wrote two books on popular libraries for rural districts and their role in continuing education.

Adrian Jarvis

Jarvis, Adrian
Honorary Research fellow, Liverpool University, UK

"In-borne Genius or the Product of a System? The paradox of Samuel Smiles' views on Technical Education"

Thu 24th Sept

Paper:

Speaker Bio:

Abstract:

The heroes of Samuel Smiles' engineering biographies are nearly all self-made men who owed nothing to formal education, indeed in some cases were positively disadvantaged by the little they had. George Stephenson taught himself to write fairly well, but James Brindley remained semi-literate allhis life. Yet among Smiles early pamphlets and down to at least 1867 he was a strong advocate of technical education, and featured early among those who made invidious comparisons between British and foreign provision. This paper seeks to resolve the apparent contradiction in the views of a man who was rarely inconsistent.

John Killen

KIllen, John

Linen Hall Library, Belfast

"Libraries and Revolution in Ireland"

Sat 26th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

This afternoon I will speak on Libraries and Revolution in Ireland. At first glance the topic of my talk may seem either arcane or stereotypical – either a reclusive researcher’s pet subject or a jaded speaker’s glib contribution to an annual conference. I hope it is neither; and that what I may say has relevance to all of us who work in an independent subscription library.

Most of the libraries which comprise the Association of Independent Libraries were founded around the late 18th century or early 19th century; and generally share a common history and purpose. Founder members sought self improvement and the improvement of society in which they existed. We were founded in interesting times.

Prof Wallace Kirsop

Kirsop, Prof. Wallace
Centre for the Book, Monash University, Australia

"[A] wide field for philosophical experiments on the perfectibility of human Nature': William Rathbone Greg (1809-1881) and the foundation of the Bury Mechanics' Institution in 1829".

Mon 28th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

By a curious coincidence (the presence in two Australian libraries of
pamphlets and documents relating to the early career of W. R. Greg) it is
possible to reveal the role of an influential nineteenth-century
manufacturer and publicist in the beginnings of the mechanics' institute
movement in Lancashire in the late 1820s.

Some of the essential information is conveyed - and almost certainly overlooked - in an article published in the /Transactions of the the Cambridge Bibliographical Society/ in 1979. It
is appropriate to return to this case of Anglo-Australian interactions in
the context of the revival of the interest in the aims and achievements of
mechanics' institutes in the nineteenth century on both sides of the Equator.

Bronwyn Lowden

Lowden, Bronwyn
Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria, Australia

"Mechanics institutes of Australia"

Fri 25th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

Mechanics' Institutes throughout the world can be known by many names. The name of Institutes is more commonly associated with their use, eg. Literary Institute for those with libraries and Miners' Institute for those in mining areas. However, throughout Australia, the naming of Institutes is mostly related to which state they are in. This can be due to the founders' idea's, community preference or accessibility to funding. These factors have influenced the naming of the 3000+ Institutes established in Australia.

Jim Lowden

Lowden, Jim
Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria, Australia

"Timothy Claxton - London - St Petersburg - Boston"

Thu 24th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

Timothy Claxton (1790-1848) was very much a self-help mechanic who seized every opportunity for advancement and an education. He was born to illiterate parents, on a country estate near Earsham, Norfolk, England and was educated to a basic level paid for by the lady of the estate. Later he took an apprenticeship as a whitesmith and on its completion moved to London where he married in 1812.

In 1817 he established the Mechanical Institution in London which had weekly sessions relating to the arts and sciences. With opportunity beckoning he travelled to St Petersburg, Russia in 1820 to establish a gas lighting plant. That completed he sailed for the United States in 1823 and settled near Boston and founded the Boston Mechanics’ Institute in 1826. In 1831 he met the American Lyceum’s Josiah Holbrook and mass produced scientific apparatus for him in partnership with Joseph Wightman. He returned to England in 1836 and in 1839 published Hints to Mechanics; on Self-Education and Mutual Instruction and Memoir of a Mechanic. In the meantime Claxton worked as an instrument maker until his death.

Dr Gary Mathlin

Mathlin, Dr Gary
University of Bath, Physics Department 

"The Herschels – a Scientific Dynasty"

(Paper not available)

Thu 24th Sept

Abstract:

William Herschel is remembered today as one of the most important astronomers in the history of the field. As well as discovering the planet Uranus – the first ‘non naked eye’ planet to be discovered – he played a pivotal role in the development of the telescope as an astronomical instrument. What is perhaps less well known is that Herschel’s sister, son and grandson also made major contributions to our knowledge of the world in fields from astronomy, mathematics and botany to forensic science. In this talk I will outline some of the achievements of this remarkable family.   

Keith Manley

Manley, Keith
Institute of Historical Research, University of London

"Books, Baths and Billiards: The Story of Greenock Library & Institution"

Thu 24th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

At the first Mechanics Worldwide conference, held in 2004, the present author examined the libraries of British mechanics' institutes in general. A few pages were devoted to a potted history of one particular library in Scotland, the Greenock Mechanics Library. The present paper re-visits that same library in order to reveal rather more about its history as a case study of how one organization endeavoured to reach the working classes by providing a library and a lecture programme. But the sub-title reveals more - baths and billiards. How did they become involved with mechanics' institutes?

Roger K Morris

Morris, Dr Roger
President Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, Honorary Associate Adult Education University of Technology, Sydney

"The Second Wave and Self-Help: The Schools of Arts of the Suburbs and the Rural Towns of New South Wales"

Fri 25th Sept

Paper:

Abstract:

In general histories of Adult Education, Schools of Arts / Mechanics' Institutes are often described as "glorious failures" -- in that, they did not achieve their founding purpose: they did not educate the artisan/mechanic in science and technology and they did not reform the moral depravity of theworkingman. However, in New South Wales, the so-called second wave Schools/ Institutes were really quite successful in meeting their much more modest goals. They adapted the often-overstated idealism of the earlier Schools/Institutes to meet, in a practical "self-help"way, the very real needs of their then infant communities.

These Schools/Institutes provided a local home for reading, learning, culture, civil society, and recreation in the developing suburbs and towns of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries: often long before there was any effective local or municipal government. In the minds of many older Australians, it was the events held in the School /Institute hall and the books borrowed from the School /Institute Library that shaped their early lives. The Schools and Institutes, as multipurpose centres of adult learning and activity, may well have declined as their communities grew and diversified, but their heritage lives on in a number of important ways.

Dr Michael Powell

Powell, Dr Michael
Cheetham's Library , Manchester

'A Library for the literate: a Museum for the masses'

(Paper not available)

Sat 26th Sept

Abstract:

The Library established in 1653 by the Manchester merchant Humphrey Chetham quickly established itself as the greatest of all the early town libraries of
Engand and the leading repository for the printed word in the north. Alongside its purpose as a library for the use of scholars, Chetham?s also built up
a collection of museum objects. This was no mere cabinet of curiosities but was sufficiently large and interesting as to enable the Library to be seen as
a museum, a place to which visitors and tourists to the world?s first industrial city would resort.

This paper seeks to explore the origins of the museum collection and the responses to that collection. It will show that the museum fostered an entirely new audience, one which, in terms of class, gender and expectation, found itself in conflict with the Library?s traditional scholarly readers; a conflict that was only resolved with the dispersal of the museum collection in the 1870s.

In the context of the current practice in the UK to unite museums, libraries and archives under the banner that they all connect people to knowledge, information, creativity and information, this paper seeks to remind us of the problems that can arise when fundamentally different types of organisation

Daniel Rose

Rose, Daniel
Swindon New Mechanics' Trust

'A 21st Century Beacon for community information and learning, cultural activities, and social progress'

(Paper not available)

Mon 28th Sept

Abstract:

The story of Swindon’s Mechanics Institution is one of enormous, innovative achievement for over 100 years, unique even amongst Institutions due to its size and longevity perhaps.  It shaped the social, educational and cultural fabric of the town which is characterized by performance culture, playing fields and parks, and readership levels out of scale with the size of population, even today.

It is an achievement for any town to be proud – a circulating library that was not replaced by a public one until 1943; a blueprint for the NHS; integrated theoretical and practical technical education – and that’s besides the output of the GWR ‘Works’ itself.

But today this is also a story of a community’s loss and disempowerment; a repression of its industrial past by a succession of ‘modern’ decision makers. The vacuum left by the Institution has never been replaced both in terms of the loss of physical community space and activity as well the protection and celebration of our heritage.

A 20-year struggle to re-claim the people’s legacy is coming to the boil.

The talk will share with delegates the fascinating history of the Swindon Mechanics’ Institution, the obstacles overcome and achievements of the New Mechanics’ Preservation Trust, and its proposals.  They seek your ideas, knowledge and support to help ensure that a suitable future is assured for this important building and its communityare brought together.

Jana Sims

Sims, Jana
Institute of Education, University of London

"Mechanics' Institutes in Sussex and Hampshire"

(Paper not available)

Mon 28th Sept

Abstract:

Literature on mechanics' institutes in Britain has traditionally focused more on the northern and industrial areas. Recent research however, has revealed a scene of thriving institutions in the south-east of England which both conformed to the national pattern yet responded to local needs, allowing each institute to develop as a unique creation of its own environment.

This paper will explore the experiences of the mechanics' institute movement in Sussex and Hampshire, highlighting examples of individual and group self-help achievement. The roles of Unitarians, women and music will also be discussed, as will the fact that serious scientific education continued at some of the institutes for a considerable period.

Verity, D
Bradford Mechanics’ Institute Library

"The Bradford Mechanics’ Institute Library"

(Paper not presented at the conference)

Paper:

Abstract:

The Bradford Mechanics’ Institute was founded in 1832 to satisfy the demand for education in this fast growing textile town. In 1870 the Institute, with some 2000 members, moved into an imposing building opposite the Town Hall where over 30 subjects were taught and a library was formed. These classes led to the foundation of the Bradford Technical College in the l980’s. Alter the Education Acts of 1870 and 1902 made the local authority responsible for both further and elementary education the Institute’s education classes ended but the well-established library remained and continued throughout the l900’s albeit in smaller premises.

At present the library has over 14000 books and a solid core of some 300 members and is also flourishing as a study centre for local history, the Brontes, poetry, gardening and bridge and its World War I group has published two books. We are proud to have had a continued existence since 1832.

POSTER PRESENTATIONS:

The Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society and the
members' roles in shaping the Library and Archive

Paper:

The Society's members have taken an active role in managing
the Museum, Library and Archive throughout its history on a voluntary basis and
continue to do so now. A visible outcome of this commitment is the long list of donations of artefacts, books and manuscripts that make up our collections. These posters highlight some of our treasures in the Library and Archive and a few of the people whose substantial gifts were crucial to the developing collection. Then we show our current plans and the outlook for the future as we try to continue to manage a volunteer run service.

The Melbourne Athenaeum, Victoria, Australia

Paper:

An illustrated chronology of the Melbourne Athenaeum, beginning in 1848 when a meeting was held by prominent people of Melbourne to establish a Mechanics’ Institute “for the promotion of science in the rising colony”, and continuing to the present day, with the Athenaeum as a cultural hub of Melbourne.

The Guildford Institute, Surrey
Markwell,Elizabeth

As Guildford Institute celebrates its 175 year anniversary this year, what better time to reflect on the many people of Guildford who have volunteered their energy and their talents to build the organisation and keep it thriving right through to the 21st century. The Institute was the brain child of a local grocer, who inspired by the work of Birkbeck , persuaded friends and associates to help him launch the original "self help" educational organisation. (Panel 1)

In an ever changing guise, the Institute was supported, adapted and moulded throughout the 19th century by the full range of the population from mechanics and tradesmen through to the local aristocracy, (Panel 2) finally finding a permanent home at the corner of North and Ward Streets, paid for by a widely supported building fund. It clung on through the tough times of the early to mid 20th century thanks to at times to only a handful of committed individuals.

Now, after a period of 25 years during which the Institute was associated with and largely run by the University of Surrey, the Guildford Institute is independent again. Without the current large body of active volunteers, many of whom are pictured here (Panel 3), the very survival of the organisation would have been in doubt. With around 40 regular volunteers, the small number of paid staff who remain have been able to re-establish the Guildford Institute as a vibrant organisation offering a real service to the local community.