About
The Linton and District Historical Society are caretakers for the Linton Mechanics Institute and Free Library Collection, which is housed in a separate building.
THE LINTON MECHANICS INSTITUTE AND FREE LIBRARY PROJECT
The Linton Mechanics' Institute and Free Library Project is an ongoing project of the Linton and District Historical Society. The primary goal of the project is to restore the former Linton Free Library building in accordance with the Conservation Management Plan developed in 2014 by David Rowe, Wendy Jacobs and Pam Jennings (1), so that it can once again be a focus for community life and activities.
Internally, the library building remains much as it was when it first opened as a Mechanics' Institute and reading room in the early 1870s. It houses original bookcases, furniture and library memorabilia, and is of "historical, social, cultural and architectural significance to the township of Linton and the State of Victoria" (2)
The Library project also aims to list, describe and display the book collection which remained in the library after its closure as a public library in 1975, and to make information about works in the collection accessible through the Victorian Collections website.
The collection is significant as a rare, intact or mostly intact example of a rural Victorian Mechanics' Institute library. It comprises approximately 1600 titles, collected between c.1870 and c.1970. Many date from the early 1870s, when the library operated under the auspices of the Linton Mechanics' Institute, others from the early twentieth century when the library was known as the Linton Free Library. By the latter half of the twentieth century, the Linton Public Library was a government-funded library managed through the Grenville Shire Council. It closed in 1975, after which mobile library services were provided to Linton.
The collection provides evidence for a strong local interest in reading and self-improvement during the period c.1870-c.1970. It is the only collection in Victoria still housed at its original site. (3)
HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY
As part of a wider working-class self-improvement movement, the nineteenth century saw the establishment of Mechanics’ Institutes world-wide. The primary purpose of the Institutes was to improve the education and technical expertise of working men, through the provision of reading rooms, lectures, and classes.
In Australia, the establishment of a mechanics’ institute was often part of a town’s early civic development, and soon after the establishment of the township of Linton in 1861, calls were made, and fundraising commenced, for the establishment of a ‘Reading Society or Club’ in Linton. (4)
The first Linton Mechanics’ Institute committee, comprising prominent local landowners and businessmen, two of whom also served as Grenville Shire Councillors, was formed in 1871. The Institute opened in November 1871, with a "somewhat scanty" collection of books. (5) By 1872 the library collection had grown to 240 volumes, and by 1874 to 700. (6)
Little is known about the acquisition of the land and building used by the Mechanics' Institute. A history of Linton published in 1939 (7) gave the date 1874 for the construction of the building, and this date was cited in many later publications and reports, and included in signage on the building when it was renovated in 1993.
However recent research suggests that the building was already in existence in 1871, and that the land and building were purchased (possibly in separate transactions) by members of the Mechanics' Institute committee in 1873.(8 )
By 1894 the number of volumes in the library collection had increased to around 2000.
Access to local and international newspapers and journals was also provided in the library, which had a dedicated newspaper reading area. Opening hours were extensive – 9.00 am to 10.00 pm in 1874, although these hours were progressively shortened. Patrons were kept warm by the provision of fires in an open fireplace, however in 1909 the chimney blew down in a storm, (9) and had to be replaced.
In its early years the library generally offered instructional works rather than recreational reading (although the collection also has many novels dating from the mid-1800s) but from the early twentieth century the focus was more on popular and genre fiction.
The library played a significant role in the civic development and cultural life of Linton, and was a focal point for the Linton community. In addition to the provision of educational and recreational reading, the library was the venue for community meetings, dances, dramatic society rehearsals, and other social activities such as Euchre tournaments. Numerous community fundraising activities (concerts, bazaars, sports events) were conducted in support of the library, to enable it to expand its collection and meet its running costs.
Over the years several different women acted as librarians/caretakers, and two small rooms attached to the rear of the building served as their living quarters. Mrs Ella Howard was the last and the most enduring librarian, her incumbency lasting from the early 1930s until the library closed in 1975. She continued to live at the library until her death in 1991. (10)
THE BOOK COLLECTION
At its peak in 1939, the library is thought to have had around 3500 volumes in its collection. However, by the early 1950s, the collection had evidently decreased to around 2000 volumes, and there were around 1600 titles at the time of the library’s closure in 1975.
There are no titles of any great rarity, and few of the titles have any commercial value.
The significance of the collection derives from its survival as a more or less intact collection, representative of the kinds of books offered to the general public over a one-hundred year period. The collection ". . . is generally a collection of carefully selected standard works across a range of disciplines." (11)
PROVENANCE
Most of the books have property marks (book plates, stamps, inscriptions) which provide the collection with secure Provenance.
Many books have ‘Linton Mechanics’ Institute’ bookplates, signed by James Dodds, the first Secretary of the Linton Institute. The presence of one of these book plates indicates that the book was part of the original library collection, and was acquired before 1891 (when James Dodds died). Thereafter books were either inscribed or stamped ‘Linton Free Library’.
THOMAS CRAIG, BOOKBINDER
Another sub-set in the collection consists of works produced at the book bindery of T. Craig & Co. of Melbourne. These books are bound in cloth which is printed with product advertisements. The advertisements are examples of nineteenth century advertising and illustrate an early method of using books for cross-promotional purposes. (12)
Thomas Craig was in business as a bookbinder in Melbourne from at least the mid-1880s. He operated as a sole trader from 1892 until his death in 1905. The books in the Linton Free Library collection which derive from his book bindery are all imprinted ‘T. Craig & Co., 268 Post Office Place, Melbourne’. These books are mainly re-issues of popular earlier works, which appear to have been printed in England, then shipped to Australia for binding in Melbourne. Advertisements on the covers are nearly all for products produced by Robert Harper & Co, an Australian manufacturer of household commodities (oatmeal, flour, jellies, laundry starch, etc.) which was in operation in the second half of the nineteenth century.
RESOURCE-SHARING BETWEEN LIBRARIES
Evidence about resource-sharing between various Mechanics’ Institutes, public and commercial libraries is provided by the numerous stamps, stickers, book plates from other libraries present in many of the books. Some books had been passed between several libraries before acquisition by the Linton Free Library. A large number of titles being disposed of by the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute were acquired by librarian Mrs Howard in 1945. (13)
NOTES
1. Linton Public Library, 67 Sussex Street, Linton : Conservation Management Plan / David Rowe and Wendy Jacobs ; historical research Pam Jennings, 2014. Report commissioned by Linton & District Historical Society.
2. Victorian Heritage Database report, viewed online at https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/search?kw=Linton+library&aut_off=1
3. Rowe and Jacobs, Linton Public Library Conservation Management Plan, Executive Summary, p. iv.
4. (1) A meeting of "persons favourable to the establishment of a Reading Society or Club" was held in April 1862. Reported in the Grenville Advocate, 16 April 1862.
(2) One of "the series of entertainments … in aid of the funds for establishing a reading room at Linton, took place … on Friday 1st September". Reported in the Ballarat Star, 23 September 1865, p. 1.
5. Acquisition of premises reported in the Ballarat Star, 6 October 1871, p. 2, and opening of the Institute in Ballarat Star, 24 November 1871, p. 1.
6. (1) Report of Annual General Meeting of the Linton Mechanics' Institute, in Ballarat Star, 31 October 1872, p. 2.
(2) The number of volumes held in 1874, 1892, 1894 and 1939 are given in Rowe and Jacobs, op. cit., Executive Summary, p. v.
7. Bennett, H. P. Looking back over 100 years : 1839-1939. (Cover title: Historic Souvenir of the Linton Centenary, 1839-1939). Linton Centenary Celebrations Committee, 1939.
8. (1) The Ballarat Star, 6 October 1871, p. 2, "The proposed Mechanics' Institute at Linton may fairly be regarded as established . . . Premises situated in the centre of the township have been obtained . . ."
(2) The Ballarat Star, 17 January 1873, p. 4 - Report of a meeting of the Grenville Shire Council. Two members of the Linton Mechanics' Institute committee wrote to the Council requesting a donation from the Council "towards the purchase of the building now used by the Institute."
(3) Rowe and Jacobs, op. cit., p. 9 - Three members of the Linton Mechanics' Institute committee purchased the allotments in Sussex Street, Linton, on which the library still stands, in February 1871.
Precise details of the acquisition of the land and building are hard to establish, as few records have survived.
9. Reported in The Argus, 5 October 1909, p. 8.
10. Rowe and Jacobs, op. cit., p. 28-29, and throughout.
11. Hubber, Brian. Significance assessment of the book collection of the Linton Free Library. Report commissioned by Linton & District Historical Society, 2013, p. 3-5.
12. Ibid, p. 5.
13. In minutes of Linton Free Library, 28 September 1943, mentioned in Rowe and Jacobs, op. cit., p. 28.
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