What are Mechanics’ Institutes?

Mechanics’ Institutes are the forerunners of public libraries and adult education in Australia. The Mechanics’ Institute movement began in 1799 when Dr George Birkbeck conducted a series of free lectures for the working men of Glasgow. The term ‘mechanic’ at that time meant artisan, tradesman or working man. The definition may have become more specific during the Industrial Revolution when workers became increasingly associated with machinery.

The movement spread throughout Britain and its colonies including Canada, South Africa,India and Australia, as well as the United States of America. The movement began in Victoria with the formation of the Melbourne Athenaeum in 1839. The Institutes served as focal points for their communities, offering libraries and reading rooms, opportunities for self education, and other attractions such as lectures, meeting rooms, museums, concerts and various games. Institute libraries were regularly patronised up until the 1950s even though conducted on a subscription basis. The book stock varied with the finances of the Institute committee but where towns were serviced by railways, cases of books could be obtained quarterly on loan from the Melbourne Public Library.

Nearly every town in Victoria had a Mechanics’ Institute. Institute committee members were dedicated to the improvement of the cultural, educational and social life of the inhabitants of their local communities. With the passage of time and the creation of enlarged educational, welfare, recreational and library facilities, Mechanics’ Institutes gradually lost their pre-eminence, particularly after World War II. Today there are over 500 still operating in Victoria as halls and homes for local organisations. A growing number of these are members of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria Inc. (est. 1998). Six Mechanics’ Institutes in Victoria continue to principally offer a lending library service.

References

If you would like further information about mechanics’ institutes and their history, visit the website of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria.


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History of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute

In the 1850s, the Colony of Victoria saw a number of mechanics’ institutes founded, based on the model of the mechanics’ institutes movement in Britain, for "moral and mental improvement". The institutes received some government support and usually erected buildings which became meeting places for the local community.

In Prahran - a few small townships or hamlets surrounded by bush and swamps - the Rev. William Moss and some local residents took steps in April 1854 to set up a mechanics’ institute. The Committee of Management’s first moves were to establish a library, institute a programme of lectures and raise money by public subscription for a building. By 1856, the building in Chapel Street, near the corner of Greville Street, was declared open by the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly.

The new building became the main meeting place of the district, which was growing rapidly as diggers from the goldfields settled in Prahran, and from the time the first Prahran Council was elected in 1856 until the Town Hall was built in 1861, the council held its meetings in the Mechanics’ Institute.

The Institute suffered a serious decline in the late nineteenth century, until at the request of concerned residents the Government of Victoria passed the Mechanics’ Institute Act which incorporated the Institute and provided that it have a Committee of Management consisting of four Prahran City Councillors (one from each ward) and four elected representatives of the members, with the Mayor of Prahran as President.

An able and energetic Secretary/Librarian (J.H. Furneaux) was appointed and the Institute very soon became once again a flourishing community organisation. In 1915, only 16 years after Furneaux had been appointed, the Mechanics’ Institute proudly handed over to the Education Department the administrations of the Prahran Technical School which it built at High Street Prahran. The Institute had previously run cooking classes and a successful technical art school. The idea of a technical school for Prahran was conceived, and the project planned and financed, by the Mechanics’ Institute. This building now forms the central part of the complex which houses Swinburne University of Technology’s Prahran Campus. The Mechanics’ Institute occupies the front of the building, facing High Street.

In 1900 the Institute’s building at 259/261 Chapel Street was reconstructed and it has been let ever since to retail firms, providing the Institute with income which allows it to operate its library service at a very low annual subscription rate to its members. Since the 1980s the Institute has concentrated its resources on providing a lending library collection specialising in the history of Victoria. Since 2004 the Institute has operated a Victorian history publishing service at the library.


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