Launceston Booksellers in the 19th Century. Part One.

At first glance, 1842 in Launceston would not seem to be an auspicious time or place to open a publicly funded, subscription based, Mechanics' Institute and library. It was a period of economic uncertainty in the colony, with falling prices and reduced trade; the town's population was around 10,000 and not more than half of those were literate. Yet this small community was served by three newspapers; several private subscription libraries; and an active trade in bookselling.

What made Launceston special at this time was the combination of entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen, foresight and energy among its community leaders. 

One of these was Henry Dowling, Jnr. By the age of 21 he was editor and publisher of the Launceston Advertiser. At 24 he commenced business as a printer, publisher, stationer and binder, in Brisbane Street. His leadership extended well beyond business to include immigration schemes, railways, a savings bank, and a long career in local and colonial politics.

Binder's Ticket from an LMI item circa 1848

In 1837, he established a bookshop and circulating library. He made arrangements with Samuel Tegg of Hobart Town for the supply of books from London, arrangements which led to a court action which was resolved in Dowling's favour in 1842. He published a "pirate" edition of Dickens' Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, in twenty-five parts and in July 1839 a bound volume of that novel with locally engraved illustrations, which was promoted as "the largest publication which has issued from either the New South Wales or Tasmanian Press".

Launceston Advertiser 25 January 1838, p4

Henry, his father the Rev. Henry, and his brother John, were all active members of the Board of Management of the Mechanics' Institute. He is recorded as an early donor of books to the Institute's collection, and he served two terms as Vice-president.

In 1852, the same year that he published John West's landmark History of Tasmania, Dowling sold his bookselling and stationery business to a new arrival in the colony, James John Hudson.

Hudson operated the business until 1868 when he entered into a partnership with Stephen Hopwood, a partnership which continued until 1885. The close business ties between the bookseller and the Institute is evidenced by the large number of books in the surviving collection which bear their blind stamps. Institute members frequently expressed a wish that more books be purchased from local suppliers. In addition, Hudson and Hopwood supplied stationery to the Institute, including ledgers and accession books. As well as his business activities James Hudson was involved in the Launceston Benevolent Society, founded the Northern Tasmanian Permanent Building Society and was instrumental in the establishment of the Launceston Working Men's Club which operated its own library (and competed with the Institute for members).

Blindstamps from books in the LMI Collection

Stephen Hopwood had started in the book trade as an apprentice to Alexander Duthie, and later in the employment of Walch Bros. and Birchall. Following the partnership with Hudson he continued the business, in partnership with John James until 1891, and then as Hopwood and Co. until his death in 1901. At this time arrangements were made for the continuance of the business for the benefit of his widow and family. The bookselling side of the business appears to have been transferred to T Hood and Co. (they also operated bookshops in Hobart and Zeehan) in the mid-1890s. They operated a circulating library from the long-established Brisbane Street premises, as had Henry Dowling back in 1837. This arrangement appears to have been shortlived as T Hood and Co. were no longer trading in Launceston in 1900, whereas Hopwood and Co. operated well into the twentieth century.

Daily Telegraph, 3 Sep 1895, p1.

Hopwood label from a book published in 1922

 In the second post in this series we will look at another bookselling business in Launceston, established in 1844, which continues to the present day.

“Rudiments of Physiology” by Dr John Fletcher.

Browsing through the collection of the Launceston Mechanics’ Institute turns up many books which were donated to the Institute. One with a particularly personal association is “Rudiments of physiology, part one, on organism” by Dr John Fletcher. 

The inscription inside the cover states:

“Presented to the Mechanics Institute by Mrs Rhind the author’s sister, 6th May 1861, Launceston”.

This simple inscription helped to uncover an interesting family story of misfortune and a successful return to fame and respectability.

The author of the book, John Fletcher, and his sister, Mary Catherine Fletcher were both born in London. Their parents, Thomas and Polly Catchlove nee Randell, were coal merchants and it was the intention that John should follow in their footsteps. His obituary states that such work did not satisfy a mind that hungered for knowledge and intellectual stimulation, and in 1813 John left for Edinburgh where he became a highly respected physician and lecturer. Perhaps his astute mind had also realised that business was a risky venture, because in 1822 and again in 1832 his mother’s business was declared bankrupt. On the first occasion John’s father Thomas, was still in business and in the second instance his brother Thomas had become a partner in business with their mother. All hopes of an inheritance for John, Mary and their siblings were lost.

Bookplate of Sidney J Fletcher, from Rudiments of Physiology

John Fletcher lived a successful life as a physician in Edinburgh, publishing two volumes of “Rudiments of Physiology” and preparing a manuscript of the third volume before his early death of illness in 1836. He had married Agnes Seton in 1821 and when he died intestate, Agnes was left with £127, a promissory note for £30, household goods valued at £382.14.00, and the copyright of the first and second parts of ‘Rudiments of Physiology’ “but upon which no value can be put”.

In 1845 The Cornwall Chronicle published a condensed version of an obituary for Dr Fletcher which had originally appeared in the ‘Edinburgh Evening Courant’ just after his death in 1836 and had also appeared in medical journals at that time. It was published in the Cornwall Chronicle under the heading ‘Biography’. Why it appeared in a Launceston paper so many years after his death is unknown, but a long paragraph at the end of the obituary, about the author’s “amiable” sister, Mrs Rhind, may indicate that she gave a copy of the article for publication. 

The original obituary was written by Robert Lewins who was responsible for the posthumous publication of Dr Fletcher’s third volume of ‘Physiology’ which included a memoir on Dr Fletcher. In the obituary Lewins gives very high praise for Dr Fletcher’s personal and professional qualities. He sums up by saying, “… by Dr Fletcher’s death science has lost a most industrious and successful cultivator, and the medical school of Edinburgh one of its brightest ornaments.”[1] Although John Fletcher wrote other books, it was Lewin’s opinion that on ‘Rudiments of physiology’ “… alone, his claim to professional distinction may be safely founded.”[2]

John’s sister, Mary Catherine, having married William Rhind, Esq. in 1839, moved with her husband to Van Diemen’s Land where they settled in Launceston. William died in 1847 "At his residence, George-street, on Saturday, the 4th December, aged 40 years, … late of Forres, Morayshire. [To a richly stored and highly cultivated mind was united a most untiring disposition, which rendered him averse to everything approximating in the most remote degree to ostentation : to those who possessed his confidence, he was unreserved ; and to such will his loss be long severely felt.]" [3] 

Mary Catherine was left to her own devices, and considered, by the editor of the Cornwall Chronicle, “a candidate for public patronage and support”.  This public declaration of the need for patronage seems to have been nothing unusual in the nineteenth century. Mary had been running a young ladies’ school from at least 1842 and in her first advertisement for the school in the ‘Launceston Courier’ she “solicits the patronage of her friends”. By 1862 she was well-known and respected enough to be a referee for another lady starting up a school. In 1869 she attended a reception at the Town Hall given by the Governor’s wife, the Hon. Georgiana du Cane.

Mary Catherine Rhind died in 1884. Obviously family was very important to her, as in her will she left several family mementoes to family members. The fact that she had already donated her brother’s book to the Launceston Mechanics’ Institute honoured not only her brother’s memory but the Institute as well, as being a worthy repository for such a prestigious book.

[1] Cornwall Chronicle, 15 November 1845, p.334.

[2] Cornwall Chronicle.

[3] Launceston Examiner, 8 December 1847, p.6.

This post was contributed by FOLMI member, Sue McClarron.

 

George Eliot's Middlemarch and Mudie's Select Library

Only a well- established novelist could challenge the orthodoxy of the "three-decker" novel at 10/6 per volume in the mid-nineteenth century. A novel was an expensive purchase, and for most Victorians, the alternative was to rent. The great circulating libraries, especially Mudie's, subverted the fiction publishing market. Mudie's business model preferred three volumes and a large order from Mudie made a decent print-run viable; to be ignored by his "Select Library" seriously threatened an author's livelihood.

Charles Dickens' alternative was to publish initially in monthly parts at a shilling an issue, with a special two-part number to conclude. Total cost one pound, instead of a guinea and a half, and an outlay spread over nineteen months. Additionally, there was the opportunity with this mode of publication to pad out the parts with paid advertisements. Then, a bound edition could follow for the patient renters.

George Eliot's Middlemarch was another attempt at beating the tyranny of the libraries. Conceived as a longer form narrative than could be contained in three volumes, it appeared first in eight books, published at two-monthly intervals, at 5/- a book. Initially, Mudie threatened a boycott, but with George Eliot at the height of her powers and popularity, he relented and took 1000 copies of Book I, or 20% of the print-run.

The Institute's collection includes among its treasures a set of Middlemarch in the eight-book first edition (1871-72), and to a bibliophile, the copy is full of interest.

The first thing to be noted is that it carefully retains all of the original green wrappers and advertisements, but has been rebound in green cloth with cream endpapers. On the cover of each book is the applied yellow plate of Mudie's Select Library. On Book I only, this plate is casually overlayed on the plate of The English and Foreign Library Company (Late Hookham's.) Thus this volume marks the exact moment that Mudie finally swallowed up his competitor, Thomas Hookham, whose company had been in the circulating library business since 1784.

Mudie's label on 'Middlemarch'. Book VI.

 On the front free endpapers of each book is the blind stamp of Hudson & Hopwood, Booksellers and Stationers, Launceston. This suggests that Messrs. Hudson and Hopwood had imported this copy of Middlemarch, probably through a purchase of Mudie's excess stock.

From Hudson & Hopwood, the books were transferred to the Launceston Public Library, at some time before 1875 when they appeared in that institution's printed catalogue. Each volume is marked with their oval stamp, and subsequently plated Mechanics' Institute and Public Library, following the transfer of the LPL's stock to its rival around 1890.

Blind stamp of Hudson & Hopwood

This, now rare, first edition of Middlemarch is described in detail from his own copy by M I Parrish in Victorian Lady Novelists (1933). The Institute's copy, which appears to be the only copy held in an Australian library, is as described by Parrish, but with some additional material.

Book I has a different set of advertisements on the back wrapper – an advertisement for Jenner & Knewstub's Patents and Inventions, not The Crown Perfumery Company, inside, and an advertisement for George Eliot, Wise, Witty and Tender Sayings in Prose and Verse, "in the Press", not the advertisement for Works of George Eliot and Lord Lytton's Novels described by Parrish.

Book II contains additional advertisements pasted inside Mudie's covers - at the front for Bontor & Collins and Rowland's Kalydor, and George Roberts' Wedding Trousseau, and at the back Phillips, China and Glass Manufacturers.

The Middlemarch experiment must have been a commercial success because Daniel Deronda was published in a similar form in 1876; and a four volume edition of Middlemarch appeared in 1872 (there is also a copy of this edition in the Institute collection), suggesting the eight book edition had been completely sold in less than a year.

The large number of volumes in the Institute collection bearing Mudie's bright yellow label indicates that his Select Library was a most useful source of books for colonial libraries, and that Mudie was astutely selling off his excess stock as demand for titles waned in his English branches. For the interested reader, Guinevere L. Griest's Mudie's Circulating Library and the Victorian Novel (1970) is recommended.

Lynne Stacpoole Caring for Your Collection Grant

Small museums increasing their resources

Launceston Mechanics' Institute,1861. Photographer, William Cawston

The Lynne Stacpoole Caring for Your Collection program provides smaller community collections and museums $1 000 to purchase assets to assist in the preservation or presentation of their collection.

 In 2015, three small museums and collections will receive funding through the program.

The funds for this program were generously donated to Arts Tasmania by former Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board member, and past chair of the Small Museums and Collections Panel, Mrs Lynne Stacpoole.

Most small museums in Tasmania are volunteer run, and can find it difficult to secure funds for capital items. Arts Tasmania’s principal support program for these collections, the Small Museums and Collections program, excludes capital items.

Recipients of the 2015 Lynne Stacpoole Caring for Your Collection program are:

•             Ulverstone History Museum, which is administered by the Central Coast Council.  This museum will receive $1 000 towards the purchase of a data projector, which will assist in sharing images from its collection with the public.

•             The Launceston Tramway Museum.  This museum will receive $1 000 towards the purchase of blinds to protect its collection from light damage.

•             Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute.  This organisation will use their grant of $1 000 towards the purchase of an upright glass display cabinet, to allow them to show more objects from their collection to the public.

 Arts Tasmania

Thursday, 19 December 2014

http://www.arts.tas.gov.au/news_articles/small_museums_increasing_their_resources