Australian Library History Forum 2016 presentation at the State Library of Queensland on 8 July 2016

1. Learning from the Past:
Building the School of Arts movement in Australia
An ADFAS in the Community Project
Marlena Jeffery
Helen Creagh

2. What is ADFAS?
The Association of Australian Decorative and Fine Arts
Societies (ADFAS)
AIMS:
The promotion and advancement of aesthetic education, the cultivation
and study of the decorative and fine arts, and the preservation of our
cultural and artistic heritage.
www.adfas.org.au

3. QLD:
Cairns
Rockhampton
Sunshine Coast
Noosa
Brisbane
Brisbane River
Toowoomba
Gold Coast
ACT:
Canberra
NSW:
Byron
Armidale
Narrabri
Mudgee
Orange
Dubbo
Pokolbin
Newcastle
Scone
Sydney
Kuring-gai
Blue Mountains
Camden
Bowral
Shoalhaven
Molonglo Plains
Riverina
VIC:
Geelong
Melbourne
Yarra
Mornington
Peninsula
Central Victoria
Murray RiverTAS:
Launceston
Hobart
SA:
Adelaide
ADFAS
Australian Decorative and
Fine Arts Societies
There are 35 Societies
around Australia

4. ADFAS in the Community
- Local ADFAS Society
Supports:
Young Arts : education and development of young
people in the local community
* Church Recording: documenting the fabric and
contents of local churches
* Schools of Arts/Mechanics’ Institutes Project:
research and documentation of social history and
buildings in this movement
* These are National projects endorsed by the Association
- Association of ADFAS
Supports:
Patricia Robertson Fund: education and
development for conservators of cultural
heritage material
Opera Australia: Schools Program
Produces:
ARTLIFE - ADFAS annual magazine

5. The Schools of Arts and Mechanics’ Institutes
Movement………. circa 1800
AIMS:
“The diffusion of literary, scientific and other useful
knowledge and the literary advancement of members and
the community generally, through the delivery of lectures,
a library of reference and circulation, a reading room and
the formation of classes.”

6. Where it all began……
Edinburgh
Watt Institution and School of Arts
Established 1821
George Birkbeck Scottish engineer
The movement was founded on ideas he put
forward at the turn of the 18/19th centuries

7. Mechanics’ Institute Hobart, est.1827
Known then as the Van Diemen’s Land Mechanics’ Institute
Australia’s first institution
Bookplate, Hobart MI
See cautionary information for readers
in the ‘Note’

8. What’s in a name?
 Qld: School of Arts
 NSW: School of Arts, Mechanics’ Institute,
Literary Institute
 Vic: Mechanics’ Institute, Athenaeum
 Tas: Mechanics’ Institute, Institute, Free
Library
 SA: Institute
 WA: Agricultural Hall, Mechanics’ Institute
Also (not State specific):
 Miners’ Institute
 Soldiers’ Memorial School of Arts
(post WW1 – 1920s)
 Community Hall …..
 Public Hall ……
These are often a later change; name may
be related to government funding

9. Contributors
 The first volunteers from ADFAS Canberra country members
 Preparing accounts for Bombala, Braidwood, Bungendore, Goulburn,
Queanbeyan, and Young
 Exchanging ideas; comparing notes

10. The first contributions…..

11. How to do this….
The project guidelines
 Layout and content
 Finding information
 Copyright
 Acknowledgements and References
 Presentation plan
 Suggestions about information to be included
Where to look……..
 Local or Regional Library
 Local Historical Society
 Local Council
 Local Identities; building custodians
 ‘Google’
 Trove
 Information related to use of material

12. Minute Book
School of Arts
Bungendore NSW
 Page 1 records the first
meeting where the decision
was taken to establish a School
of Arts
Friday 8th June 1888
Also…..
 Names were put forward
 Moved and carried that
- These comprise the Provisional
Committee
- Ladies be admitted to Membership
Record held by the National Library of Australia MS663

13.  Trove is an online resource
trove.nla.gov.au
 Access Trove anywhere there is a computer
 Shows information held by libraries in Australia
 Your librarian will assist you if you need help
 Inter-library loans might be possible
Trove
Tells you about…
Books
Maps
Photos
Articles
Newspapers
Archives
..…… and more

14. Making the Institutions….
and their buildings
Benefactor
Berry NSW
Community support:
Laying the Foundation Stone 1916
Abermain NSW UoN Collections
Committee 1951
Uppera Coomera Qld
Centenary Celebrations 2012: Eumundi Qld
Notecard depicting 100 years of activities

15. Fund-raising: Queen Competitions
Historical Society
Cooroora Qld

16. Aims of the Institution: 1900
“The mental and moral improvement and the rational
recreation of members through the establishment of a
library and reading room, and by the provision of lectures,
the formation of classes, the maintenance of recreational
facilities, and by such other means as seem desirable to
the Committee.” New Lambton Mechanics’ Institute

17. On the cultivation of the Fine Arts with Practical Illustrations
On the study of Physical Sciences
On the Economy and Variety of Nature, illustrated by the hydro-oxygen microscope
On the Progress of Civilisation as connected with the extension of Christianity
On the Physiology of the Senses
On Free Inquiry in relation to the natural Sciences
On Pneumatics
On Harmony and the Harmonious results of well-spent time
On Vegetable Physiology
Lectures in the program at the Hobart Mechanics’ Institute 1840s

18.  Should Members of Parliament be paid?
 Would it be advantageous to disannex the colony from the British throne?
 Is the intellect of the sexes equal?
 Should the franchise be extended to women?
 A Bill for the better protection of Aborigines in this Colony.
 Has the stage a moral or immoral tendency?
 Whether the gold discoveries of Australia have retarded, or otherwise, its
manufacturing industry.
Program of debates at the Literary Institute Bombala NSW 1870s
National Library of Australia MS 6373

19. Library interiors
Newcastle School of Arts
Est.1870
Newcastle Regional Library
Hunter Photobank
c.1900
◄
1935 ▲
►

20. The Reading Room
▲ New Lambton NSW est. 1900
University of Newcastle (UoN) Cultural Collections
◄ West Maitland NSW est. 1854
Maitland Mercury 7 January 1933

21. Invoice from London
supplier for Reading
Room material
June 15 1914
Bombala NSW
Literary Institute
National Library of Australia MS 6373

22. Lower Hunter Region NSW:
Bookstock of institutions up to ca 1914
Date of Establishment of Institution also shown
Charlestown Literary Institute Est 1877 1 443
East Maitland Mechanics’ Institute Est 1859 4 800
Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute Est 1861 5 080
Hinton School of Arts Est 1869 420
Largs School of Arts Est 1875 587
Merewether School of Arts Est 1882 4 210
Newcastle School of Arts Est 1870 25 222
New Lambton Mechanics’ Institute Est 1900 2 239
Paterson School of Arts Est 1868 1 018
Stockton Literary Institute Est 1894 3 000
Waratah School of Arts Est 1865 1 545
West Maitland School of Arts Est 1854 13 301
Woodville School of Arts Est 1876 750
Science Success and Soirees : Heaton, Preston, and Rabbitt. Newcastle History Monograph No 14 p.112
Newcastle Region Library ca 1990

23. 1888:
Extract from a list of books held in the library
of the Burrowa Mechanics’ Institute
Boorowa NSW
Published in the local newspaper
The Burrowa News Friday 31 August 1888

25. Acknowledgements
 Our thanks to the volunteers from ADFAS Societies who have contributed to this project
 Much of the information and many of the photographs included in this presentation are from
their contributions
ADFAS in the Community
Schools of Arts and Mechanics’ Institutes Project
www.adfas.org.au