A tribute to Mary Dent

After a lifetime's contribution to librarianship and local history research in Launceston, Mary Dent passed away on 15 July, and was honoured by family and friends at a ceremony on 19 July.

Mary Dent, 1975

She was born Sheila Mary Wilson on 25 June 1929 in Birmingham in the UK, to parents Alfred (Alf) and Laura (Phyl). When she was less than two years old the family migrated to Tasmania; her sister Margaret was born here in 1932. They lived and farmed near Smithton and North Motton, where Phyl kept a small library for local borrowers.  When the family moved to Launceston, Mary went at first to West Launceston Primary School, then to Broadland House as a boarder during the war years. 

After matriculating, with university not being an option financially, Mary began work at 17 at the Launceston Public Library in the old Mechanics’ Institute building. It was in her first year there that, remarkably, she fulfilled an ambition to learn to fly an aeroplane. The war years had been full of tales of heroes like Guy Gibson and the Dam Busters, and they renewed a popular interest in flight. Mary became one of those enthusiasts, and it took great dedication to follow it through. Her father had to lend her the money required – 10 shillings a time – and Mary had to cycle out to the Tas Aero Club at Western Junction for lessons; in fact it wasn’t until her 40s that Mary actually got her car driving licence. Eventually she passed her solo pilot’s test and flew locally; she remarked later that she followed the railway lines to avoid getting lost on the way home. She entered an Examiner competition for a scholarship for further training as did two other girls, but it was one of the many male applicants who won it.

In her first year at the library, Wal Sutherland, the Assistant Librarian, saw her promise and encouraged her to undertake training at Sydney Public Library. In 1948 it had an associated Library School, so she gained valuable experience in a large city library and training in librarianship. She later reminisced on having a wonderful time, let loose as a youngster to explore the city. Wal had come up to Sydney at one point ostensibly on library business, but was there, she felt sure, also to check up on her. At the end of the year she was awarded a Preliminary Certificate in Librarianship. She returned to work in the Reference section and was appointed Assistant Cataloguer under Thelma Masters. Because her duties involved typing up catalogue cards she was trained in touch typing in Launceston. Unfortunately the time away in Sydney broke her contact with flying, and she never went back to it, though she kept her helmet and goggles, which her grandchildren, in time, wore for dress-ups.

In 1952 she married Bruce Dent, and they bought 40 acres in Underwood. The following year they moved to Geeveston where Bruce had been appointed a Horticultural Extension Officer in the Agriculture Dept. At her departure Wal Sutherland gave her a glowing reference, praising her intelligence and character, as well as her work skills. When Bruce left his job at Geeveston they moved back north to settle on their property in Underwood, where Bruce established a nursery growing apple seedlings for Tamar Valley orchardists. They later diversified into birch seedlings and shrubs and flowers.

They had two daughters, Sarah and Penelope, and in 1960 when the children were still very young, Mary started back at the Launceston Public Library part-time at two days a week. She and the girls would take the school bus to Launceston where the girls went to a crèche in the house which is now a doctor’s surgery in Civic Square, and later to Broadland House. The family also ran a very small general store from an addition to the front of their home in Underwood, and like her mother, Mary started a small library where local residents could borrow books. She was never away from librarianship!

It was shortly after Mary returned to Launceston that Phil Leonard, who had owned a farm in Kenya, came to Tasmania. Well-read and drawn towards librarianship, though without professional qualifications, Phil became a member of staff, beginning as a relief Bookmobile driver in 1962. He studied librarianship part-time alongside his full-time duties, becoming the Reference Librarian in 1967, and on Wal Sutherland’s death in 1970, City Librarian. He was in the role when the old Mechanics’ Institute was pulled down in 1971 and library services were provided in the brand new, purpose-built Northern Regional Library. It is still in current use and now almost 50 years old.

After her initial library training in Sydney, Mary worked under the highly-respected Assistant Librarian, Miss Masters, in the Reference Library, and increasingly moved from cataloguing towards local history. After Miss Master’s death, Mary shared the management of the Local History area with Val Walkem, both part-time.  When the changeover to the new premises occurred they had an office on the Second Floor in a fine blackwood-panelled room with glass-fronted cabinets and a portrait of Sir Richard Dry. It is now the Phil Leonard Room. It became her domain and she was particularly proud of it, especially after her previous dark and dingy quarters in the old Mechanics’. She trained up others in local history to share her role, including Nell Joyce and Dorothy Rosemann. In the later 1970s Mary took on demanding in-service studies through the Australian Library Association and gained her full professional qualifications in 1981. 

Mary in the new Local History Room, 1971

It was in her role in the Local History section that she gave vital support and guidance to history researchers. She put a huge amount of time into maintaining a card index and cuttings files which were the basis of a reference source for many well-known historians, authors and broadcasters such as Dr Clifford Craig, Hawley Stancombe, Jack Branagan, KR von Stieglitz, Max Oldaker, Brian Plomley, Patricia and Eric Ratcliff and Dennis Hodgkinson. She also gave invaluable assistance to many visiting scholars who were drawn to Launceston Library by its rich collection of rare Australian books. Mary particularly remembered the visits of Sir John Ferguson who was compiling his standard reference work on pre-1850 publications, Bibliography of Australia.

In addition to her work in the Library Mary prepared indexes to several important Tasmanian books that until then had lacked them, most notably West's History of Tasmania, Button's Flotsam and Jetsam, and Tasmania's North East by AW Loone. These indexes have been lifesavers to many librarians over the years. She typed some of Clifford Craig’s books, earning his acknowledgment, like this one in 1982: 

I also wish to thank Mr P F Leonard, Librarian of the Northern Regional Library, Launceston, and his staff, particularly Mrs Mary Dent of the Local History Collection. In her professional capacity, she found and described many new prints. In her own time she has typed the manuscript with great care more than once. Indeed she cannot be given enough praise for all that she did in seeing this book to the press.

Mary fiercely defended the local history collection that had been established in the Mechanics’ Institute days of Alex Johnson and Joe Forward. They had a remarkable history of custodianship from 1860 to 1945; in the latter years Thelma Masters carried the banner and passed it to Mary, who valued highly the remarkable collective legacy created by the city, for the city. Phil Leonard, whose leadership was greatly respected by staff and the public, fought tooth and nail to thwart the State Library’s wish that these unique resources be located in Hobart. His tenacity prevailed with Mary acting as guardian on watch. Mary undertook the enormous task of compiling a schedule of the significant items in the Launceston Library whose ownership was to remain vested in the Launceston Corporation after the transfer of library management from the City Council to the State Library of Tasmania in 1974. It was a task which took her two years to complete in addition to her usual duties at the library.

Mary retired in 1988, after giving more than 40 years’ professional service to the Launceston Library. She settled back on the farm at Underwood until 1993, when it was sold and she and Bruce moved to Launceston. In 1994 they moved to The Manor when it was first built. She became its librarian, and continued to help researchers.  She attended the chapel there and was for many years the Secretary of the Residents’ Committee; she was also a member of Probus. She lived at The Manor for the last 27 years of her life, more than half of it after Bruce’s death in 2003.

Mary working with the FOLMI volunteers in 2015. An 'Examiner' photo

In 2013, Mary became a founding member of the Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute. She played a key role in recording the surviving collection of the Institute and indexing its records, giving many hours of voluntary work to the group over the next eight years. Mary's extraordinary memory and her readiness to share her knowledge of the Institute made an invaluable contribution to the work of FOLMI. Through the group’s efforts the nationally significant collection has survived to be conserved in Launceston together with the heritage materials kept in the Local Studies Collection in Launceston Library and the Institute’s records in QVMAG.

From her many friends, colleagues, history researchers and collaborators over two generations Mary will be remembered with great affection. Always direct and clear-sighted, she was loyal to her principles and loyal to the goals of her profession. The fields in which she worked are the richer for her contribution, and Launceston the beneficiary of her dedication to librarianship and local history.

Contributed by Friends of the Launceston Mechanics’ Institute

A version of this tribute was published in The Examiner, 17 August, 2021, p10.

From Wilderness to World Heritage by Catherine Pearce, 29 July 2020

 Ninety nine years ago on Friday 29 July 1921 an important meeting took place at the Launceston Mechanics Institute. Held under the auspices of the newly formed Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania, its object was to push for the establishment of a national park in the vicinity of Cradle Mountain.

 

A reserve had been proposed for the area in the years leading up to World War One, but during the conflict and its aftermath momentum had been lost. Although marked on the map as ‘proposed scenic reserve’ the area had not been gazetted, and several speculators had taken up land.

 

In 1920 Launcestonians Dr Ray McClinton, Charles Monds, Alderman Frank Heyward, Frederick Smithies and H J King made several trips to the area. Discussions with their host Gustav Weindorfer at Waldheim Chalet led to a plan to make a concerted effort to have a national scenic reserve gazetted in the high country around Cradle Mountain.

 

To this end the meeting at the Mechanics Institute was called. Those speaking in favour of the proposal included Mr E T Emmett, Director of the Government Tourist Department, and Joseph Lyons, a future Australian Prime Minister, then a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. Lyons observed that the USA, Canada and many countries smaller than Tasmania had national parks set aside for people to enjoy and to foster tourism. ‘It was simply a matter of getting a number of persons to put backbone into the matter’ he said.

 

A lantern slide show was screened to illustrate the magnificence of the area. A reporter in attendance wrote ‘the rugged beauty of Cradle Mountain from the surrounding country, and of Crater Lake, with its precipitous sides, rivals America’s best scenery.’

 

At the conclusion of the evening a special committee comprising Alderman Heyward, Dr McClinton, Fred Smithies, George Perrin, Stephen Spurling and Tas Shields MLC, was formed to continue the crusade. In the months that followed, while Weindorfer wooed politicians at Waldheim and Emmett talked up tourism, the committee championed the cause, taking photographs, holding slide shows, rallying the public and lending support to Weindorfer and Emmett.

 

Today the Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park is at the heart of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, meeting seven out of the ten criteria set down by UNESCO. Only one other place in the world – Mount Taishan in China – qualifies on as many levels. The meeting at the Mechanics Institute was a significant moment in the campaign that led to the establishment of one of Australia’s most celebrated national parks.

 

         

---

[1] Examiner (Launceston) 29 July 1921, p.4.

[2] Examiner 30 July 1921, p.8.

[3] Ibid

[4] Weekly Courier 17 February 1921, p.17

St John Browne and the Penny Cyclopaedia

One of the earliest tasks in establishing the new Launceston Mechanics' Institute Library was the provision of a Reference Collection for the use of members in the Reading Room. This collection was based largely on donations and so by 1861 it included an eclectic mix of subjects, as shown in this excerpt from the Printed catalogue of that year.

Many of these items remain in the collection today, and one with especially interesting provenance is the Penny Cyclopaedia.

Its accession was recorded thus in the minutes of the 1843 annual meeting of the society; "on loan, for use in the reading-room, the Penny Cyclopaedia, 21 vols., from St. John E. Browne, Esq."  Every volume was permanently inscribed with the owner's name on the flyleaf.

The Penny Cyclopaedia, which was produced for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, was published by Charles Knight the publisher of the Penny Magazine. Twenty-seven volumes and three supplements were published from 1828 to 1843. The Society's object was to publish inexpensive texts for an expanding reading public, with a particular emphasis on self-education; a perfect fit with the aims and ideals of a Mechanics' Institute.

Clearly, since we still have the set of books, the original owner did not exercise his right to reclaim his loan. So what is known about the donor, St John E. Browne?

He was a younger brother of Rev William Henry Browne, who was rector of St John's Church, Launceston from 1828 to 1868. St John must have soon followed his brother to VDL as he first comes to notice in Launceston in 1831 as the operator of a private school. The brothers' relationship is succinctly characterised by Gill Morris; - "hapless and impecunious [St John] certainly tried his brother's patience, energy and pocket as much as his position of influence within government circles."(1)

A few entries from Rev Browne's journal will serve to illustrate;

5 June 1837 ... "Lectured Mr Wales & Mr Turner for their conduct in trying to provoke my Brother to a Duel."

29 January 1842 ..."Wrote several letters, visited sick etc. also engaged getting letters for St John from Bankers & to assist him against the persecution of his superior."

2 November 1844 ... "Wrote several letters, also for St John again in trouble with postmaster Genl ..."

In parallel with the "persecution of his superior" St John faced the slings and arrows of public opinion via the columns of the local newspapers, where correspondents repeatedly drew attention to the shortcomings of the post office and his management.

Somehow, doubtless with his brother's assistance, St John survived in his tenure as Post Master at Launceston until his retirement on a government pension.

The Launceston Examiner announced his retirement with characteristic delicacy;

Mr. St. John E. Browne, Postmaster at Launceston, has forwarded an application, accompanied by medical certificates, asking permission to retire on allowance. This request, made in consequence of failing health, has, we understand, been assented to by the Executive. Mr. Browne will, therefore, cease to hold office at the close of the year: it is presumed he will be succeeded by Mr. Wm. Windeatt. Such is the programme for the 1st of January, 1861. We do not care to institute any comparisons, or to say a word calculated to wound the most sensitive; but we cannot resist the conviction that the arrangements thus briefly sketched, will be acceptable to the public and beneficial to the service. (2)

St John returned to England, and, despite his "failing health", survived until 1880.

At some point after his departure a user of the Mechanics' Institute Reading Room must have taken down Volume Nine of the Penny Cyclopaedia from the shelves, and, noticing St John's inscription, decided to add a sketch of the man for posterity; - faintly pencilled below the signature is the observation that "He left behind him a character stained by avarice, harshness and deception."

It is a reminder, in the age of increasing dependence on the digital surrogate, of the value of libraries in preserving what David Pearson has described as "museums of marginalia". Our volume of the Penny Cyclopaedia has preserved a unique interaction, a moment in time when our anonymous reader felt a spontaneous need to put a deeply held personal view 'on the record.'

1. Browne, W. H., His record is on high : the journal of Reverend William Henry Browne, LLD, of St John's Church, Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, 23 May 1830 - 19 February 1845 / edited by Gill Morris. Launceston, Tasmania : Gill Morris, 2013. p 13.

2. LAUNCESTON EXAMINER. Saturday, December 1, 1860. P2.

Plomley Foundation

Followers of our Facebook posts will be aware that we were recently granted funding from the Plomley Foundation for volunteer training to catalogue our collection. When catalogued, the collection will become available for the first time on the Australian National Bibliographic Database and through TROVE.

Significantly enhanced access to the collection will support FOLMI's future activities in collection management and interpretation. A catalogued collection will enable research, evaluation and analysis of the collection by allowing multiple access points and faceted searching which is currently not possible. It will also allow FOLMI to maintain its own catalogue as a subset of ANDB.

It is the single most important way FOLMI can improve access to its collection because it provides national and global access to its collection. Information about the collection and individual items will be made available for the first time to all those researchers, students, historians, bibliophiles and readers who may have an interest.

Members will be aware that this cataloguing project received strong endorsement as a priority for our organisation in the Significance Assessment completed by Dr Susan Marsden in 2015.

The Plomley Foundation was established in 1984 by the late N J B (Brian) Plomley, a former Director of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery from 1946 to 1950 and from the early 1980s until his death in 1994, an Honorary Research Associate at QVMAG.

Since its establishment the Foundation has supported a wide variety of research projects on various aspects of Tasmania’s natural and cultural heritage.

While we were aware at the time of our funding application that Brian Plomley had taken an interest in the Launceston Mechanics' Institute collection during his lifetime, and that he had used the collection while researching popular fiction writers such as A E W Mason, Harold Bindloss and C N and A M Williamson, we had no idea that he also had a much closer and more significant personal connection with the whole Mechanics' Institute movement.

Among Brian Plomley's forebears were the Birkbeck's of Settle, in Yorkshire's West Riding, about whom he wrote in Several Generations (1971) Therefore he shares a common ancestry with Dr George Birkbeck, pioneer of the Mechanics' Institute movement and founder and first president of the London Mechanics' Institute. 

One of the treasures in our collection is the first volume of The London Mechanics' Register (1825) into which is bound a six page 'Biographical Memoir of George Birkbeck M.D.'.

LMR, v1, no1

It is fitting then that we draw inspiration in our project both from the direct support of Brian Plomley and the contribution of his close relative.

The following summary of Brian Plomley's career is taken from the introduction to QVMAG's guide to its Plomley archives (CHS53);

Norman James Brian Plomley (known as Brian) was born on 6 November 1912 in Sydney, the elder son of Morris James Plomley, medical practitioner, and his wife Winifred Julia (nee Pickburn).

After graduating B.Sc. from the University of Sydney in 1935, he spent two years in England gaining research experience at the Imperial College of Science, London, and the University of Cambridge. 

Returning to Australia, he spent 1938 as Acting Curator of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. At the beginning of 1939 he joined the Department of Physics at the University of Tasmania as a research biologist. Later, during the Second World War he worked in the Optical Munitions Annex on the Queen’s Domain, Hobart.

In 1946 he returned to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery as Director. He was awarded the degree of M.Sc. from the University of Tasmania in 1947 for a study of the genetic effects of ultraviolet radiations.

He re-entered the academic world in 1950 when he was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Sydney. In 1957/58 he worked at the Galton Laboratory, University College, London, researching human genetics, then became a temporary lecturer in the College’s Department of Anatomy.

Back in Australia he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy at the University of New South Wales from 1961 until 1965, when he travelled to Paris to study French observations of Tasmanian Aborigines. The following year he joined the staff of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the University College, London. He left the College in 1973 returning to Australia where he was Senior Associate in Aboriginal and Oceanic Ethnology in the Department of History, University of Melbourne, until he retired in 1976.

From 1977 he lived in Tasmania, devoting himself to writing. For his services to historical research he was honoured by Membership of the Order of Australia in 1979 and awarded the Clive Lord Medal by the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1983. He lived in Hobart until November 1985, when he moved to Launceston.

In September 1984 the Plomley Foundation was established with his generous support, being one of the most important donations received by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. The foundation’s aims are to encourage research and publication about Tasmania’s natural and cultural heritage and the further development of the collections of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

Brian Plomley was an Honorary Research Associate at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery until he died on 8 April 1994.

Michael Davitt and the Salvation Army

In its hundred years of operation many other mechanics' institutes in Tasmania turned to the Launceston Institute for assistance, most frequently with requests for books, and advice.

One particularly interesting enquiry came from the Scottsdale Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society in September 1884 seeking guidance on policies for use of the Institute. Their first question was; "To what classes of persons and for what purposes, public and private, would the Mechanics' Hall be let?" A specific example was given. Would the hall be let "to Michael Davitt or to the Salvation Army?"

Their trepidation regarding the Salvation Army was understandable. At the time the "Army" was regarded as a controversial moral crusade, radical in its views, enthusiastic and noisy in its public demonstrations. The organisation was new to Australia and its members often faced rowdy disruptions at their assemblies. On 11 September 1884, for example, Launceston Army representatives brought actions in the Police Court against four men who had attempted to disrupt their tent meeting on the previous Sunday. All were convicted and fined. Similar disturbances were reported at the time at Longford, Deloraine and the Don.

But what was the special interest in Michael Davitt; Fenian, MP and founder of the Irish National Land League?

Reports circulated throughout the colonies in 1884 that Davitt was planning to visit on a speaking tour. The Launceston Examiner made its view plain; "when Mr Michael Davitt arrives -should he deem it advisable to visit us – let that gentleman be politely informed that here at least his room will be preferable to his company."(1)

See Footnote (2)

As it turned out, Davitt's visit to Tasmania did not take place until 1895 and the Institute was not required to decide whether or not he was a welcome guest. He spoke at a reception at the Cornwall Assembly Rooms and was warmly received by a large audience. His visit was extensively reported in the the newspapers of the day.

Three years later he published an account of his visit in 'Life and progress in Australasia', in which he recalled his impressions of Launceston, including these observations;

The city has a very commodious Mechanics' Institute, with a free reading-room and a library of over 20,000 volumes. In clubs, societies, associations, and in institutions of a religious, charitable, literary, social, and athletic character the reputation of Launceston is very high. There is a bewildering number of these set forth in the local directory, and this probably explains the decidedly favourable estimate which the citizens form of their own culture, commercial standing, and political importance as compared with the opinions they hold and express upon Hobart and its people.

Launceston, in fact, holds its head very high when instructing a friendly stranger how to differentiate between a city with brains and capacity and an accidentally selected capital. You are soon reminded by Launcestians that Melbourne is the daughter of the little city by the turbulent South Esk, as Victoria's capital was founded by the adventurous Batman and other exploring Tasmanians. This historic fact causes your Launceston politician, pressman, lawyer, dock labourer, or newsboy to speak of Hobart, the capital of the colony, in the most patronizing manner, and to predict with the confidence of a prophet the advent of the day when the seat of government will be transferred from the banks of the delightful Derwent to those of the tranquil Tamar.(3)

That a democrat and autodidact should draw special attention to the Institute is not surprising. The Mechanics' Institute at Haslingden in Lancashire had played an important role in the development of Davitt's political ideals. The image below is from the Haslingden Old and New blog and shows Michael Davitt working in the upper rooms of their Institute.

The Launceston Mechanics' Institute quickly acquired a copy of 'Life and progress in Australasia' when it was published in 1898, and the book is still in that part of the collection (some 500 volumes) housed in the Launceston Library.

Scottsdale's Mechanics' Institute Hall was commenced in 1881, opened in 1883, and was operated by the community until 1917 when the building and its library were taken over by the Municipal Council. The building still stands and a volunteer committee has recently taken on the task of redeveloping the hall. Images of the building can be accessed at their Facebook page.

1. 'Launceston Examiner', 13 June 1884, p2.

2. Portrait of Michael Davitt from 'Harper's New Monthly Magazine', August 1887, p422. (LMI Collection)

3. Davitt, Michael, 'Life and progress in Australasia' (1898). p314.