A Reading List

Books about the Launceston Mechanics' Institute

The definitive account:

Stefan Petrow, Going to the mechanics; a history of the Launceston Mechanics Institute, 1842-1914.
(Launceston,Tas.: Historical Survey of Northern Tasmania, 1998)

An earlier history:

 

Ernest Whitfeld, History of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute and Public Library. (Launceston, Tas. : The Institute, 1910)

Whitfeld's history has been digitised by the State Library of Victoria and may be viewed by pasting this SLV link into your browser;
http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&reset_config=true&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1080147

Wider reading:

Baragwanath, Pam, If the walls could speak : a social history of the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria (Windsor, Vic. : Mechanics Institute Inc., 2000)

Candy, P. C. (Philip C.) and Laurent, John, Pioneering culture: mechanics' institutes and schools of art in Australia. (Adelaide : Auslib Press, 1994)