Community Heritage Grant 2015

I am pleased to advise that we have been successful in our application for a grant of $6127 to undertake a Preservation Needs Assessment of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute collection. 

This year's round of Community Heritage Grants were announced in Canberra last night and a full list may be viewed at;
https://www.nla.gov.au/chg/community-heritage-grants-recipients-2015

The National Library's media release may be found at;
https://www.nla.gov.au/media-releases/2015/10/26/community-heritage-grants-awarded

Tasmanian supporters will be pleased to see that it was a bumper year for the state with a total of seven grants awarded to Tasmanian organisations.

 

NLA's wonderful Community Heritage Grants program has funded 338 preservation needs assessments (PNA)s, (previously called preservation surveys). In each case, an external consultant was appointed to conduct the PNA. The aim of a PNA is to look at the physical condition of a collection, the suitability of current housing and storage facilities and to make recommendations for the development of a conservation program.

 

Negotiations are under way with an exceptionally well-qualified consultant to undertake the Preservation Needs Assessment on our behalf, including a site visit before the end of the year.

Peter Richardson
President
FOLMI

Enquire within...

A selection of obscure, intriguing and ill-considered titles from the LMI Collection.

In a large lending library some spine titles catch the browser's eye and invite further attention while others doom the book to be forever passed over and ignored. Here is a selection of personal favourites from our collection.

11. Preston-Thomas, Herbert, The Work and play of a Government Inspector. (Edinburgh; William Blackwood and Sons, 1909.)

The question is begged. How much work and what sort of play would be reasonable in the life of a Victorian bureaucrat? And the answer appears to be fifty years in the Civil Service made bearable by occasional interludes of mountain-climbing.

10. Misrepresentations in Campbell's Lives of Lyndhurst and Brougham, corrected by St Leonards. (London; John Murray, 1869.)

A title page bristling with outrage even down to the authorial statement, this little volume came out in the same year and under the same imprint as Campbell's Lives, although in a far superior binding. The two books now sit side-by-side in the collection, memorialising an internecine feud among the Lords Chancellor.  Sir Charles Wetherell once addressed Lord Campbell as "my noble and biographical friend who has added a new terror to death", but Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards, was still alive to defend himself in a hundred pages of forensic detail.

9. Mackay, Charles, Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. (London: Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852.)

A title that demands to be picked up, and doesn't disappoint, if only for the chapter on 'Influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard'. The short title (for the Institute catalogue) was Popular Delusions.

8. Wolff, Sir Henry Drummond, Rambling Recollections. 2 Vols. (London: Macmillan & Co., 1908.)

It is one thing to differentiate your memoirs from the rows of "The Life of X" and "The Diaries and letters of Y" but quite another to proclaim the absence of structure via your title. To emphasise the point , Sir Henry asserts that the contents of the book "are given just as they come unbidden into my memory" and "I fully recognise the defects arising from want of premeditation". He warns the reader that his "declining years have not been over-crowded with enjoyment" and that it would be his "misfortune" to write a sequel. Two volumes, each of 400pp, but was his heart really in the project?

7. L'Estrange, Roger, Intereft Miftaken: or, The Holy Cheat: proving from the undeniable practifes and pofitions of the Presbyterians, that the Defign of that Party is to enflave both King and people under the Mafque of Religion. By way of Obfervation upon a treatife, intituled, The Intereft of England in the matter of religion, &c. 3rd imp. (London; Printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun in Ivy Lane, 1662.)

This may be the longest title in our collection, falling just short of a full synopsis.  And the '&c' suggests the author had something even longer in mind. The title must have defeated the binder as the tooled leather covers are entirely blank.

6. Naish, Percy Ll. The Rollings of a mossless stone. (London; John Ouseley Limited, [19--])

Such a clumsy title that it demands attention. If so, the author's apology at the start of Chapter One would not have inspired the potential reader; "One may well doubt if there is room for yet another book of recollections? Well, perhaps there may be a public for a totally novel author, the perfect nonentity, who not only is not at or near the head of any of the professions ... but cannot even have claimed to have belonged to any of them." For the record this is a book about hunting, travel and golf.

5. Marvin, Charles, Merv, the Queen of the world; and the scourge of the man-stealing Turcomans. With an exposition of the Khorassan question. (London: W H Allen and Co., 1881.)

A "comprehensive compilation dealing with current political questions" all of which will mean little to the twenty-first century reader. Compilation is the irreconcilable enemy of good title-making. Merv was once the largest city on the planet, and the names may have changed but the world's trouble spots have not.

4. Mather, E J, "Nor'ard of the Dogger". (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1887.)

An intriguing title, full of possibilities, exciting the imagination and asking to be read aloud. But a look inside at the sub-title; "Deep sea trials and gospel triumphs. Being the story of the initiation, struggles and successes of the mission to deep-sea fishermen" would surely have deflated the expectations of most browsers.

3. Forbes, Archibald, Glimpses through the Cannon-Smoke. (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1883.)

This little book has been badly served by the Institute's binder but perhaps it was picked up more often because of that. What could 'ANNON_SMOKE' possibly signify? The author confesses to "certain compunctions of conscience as to the title... [which] may be thought to have rather a lurid aspect of sensationalism". Well yes, but not so much as the two titles below in our list.

2. Adams, W H Davenport

Wrecked lives; or, men who have failed. First series.

Wrecked lives; or, men who have failed. Second series.

(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1880.)

A quintessentially Victorian title, where the failure is moral (as might be expected from this publisher). To illustrate his thesis, Adams highlights Jonathon Swift who "may hand down his name and fame to after ages; but was not that a wrecked life which passed away under the heavy shadow of imbecility?" Chatterton, Burns, Wolsey and Poe also feature. A book to frighten men.

1. Colomb, Captain, Slave-catching in the Indian Ocean. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1873.)

Since this is a very well-informed and measured account of the suppression of the East African slave trade, the lurid and highly misleading title invites speculation. What on earth was the publisher thinking? Several books on the topic appeared at the time but this title was bound to catch the eye –Victorian click-bait?

Posted by Peter Richardson

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.

Craw & Ratcliff - Booksellers

The FOLMI volunteer team has been wintering in the comfort of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery's reading room, sorting and listing the records of the Mechanics' Institute. One of the joys of filing the nineteenth century correspondence and accounts has been to see the variety of letterheads and billheads belonging to Launceston businesses.

Craw & Ratcliff billhead. click to enlarge

This ornate example was discovered by Anna Lynde last week and it belongs to a bookseller none of us had heard of before. We are indebted to Ross Smith, a member of the QVMAG staff, whose detective work revealed the sad story of Messrs. Craw and Ratcliff's brief appearance in the annals of the book trade in Launceston.

Their shop was established in Central Brisbane Street in 1887, after they took over the book and stationery business of Kerkham and Banks. Following some initial success and achieving a modest return from the business, they invested heavily in stock in anticipation of the Tasmanian Exhibition which was to have opened in 1890.

Most unfortunately for them, the Exhibition opening was postponed for a year, largely because of a shipping strike which affected all of the colonies. Its delayed opening left Leslie Craw, the senior partner, and Henry Ratcliff carrying £1600 of stock much of which could not be sold. In an attempt to trade out of difficulties they invested in the tea trade and were again left overstocked. The partnership's creditors had their stock revalued and the new valuation came in much lower, at £920. 

Insolvent, the partners were forced to close the business well before the Exhibition opened its doors in November 1891.

The small cash purchase by the Institute appears to be mainly aimed at younger readers – three titles from Ward Lock's 'Minerva Library' and a book from Martha Finley's Mildred Keith series are included.

A portrait of Leslie Craw, who was in his early twenties when he established the partnership with Henry Ratcliff, may be found on the excellent Launceston Family Album site maintained by the Friends of the Library, Launceston. Both Craw and Henry Ratcliff had previously worked for Hopwood and James Booksellers and were active in local sporting and musical circles.

Mary Fisher

The Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute have just commenced a major reorganisation of the Institute's records. Our first task is to sort out the correspondence files for the years 1842-1945. One letter from 1939 raises a question for readers of the blog – do you remember browsing in the Mary Fisher Bookshop, or even remember Mary Fisher herself? We would love to hear your stories.

Mary Fisher Bookplate

Here is a transcription of the letter (itself a reminder of a perennial question for libraries – do they purchase locally or rely on larger volume interstate and international suppliers?)

September 19 1939. 

From Mary Fisher Book Club. 

Referring to my recent conversation with you, I have given much consideration to your Board’s decision to purchase books direct from London and elsewhere through a mainland firm.  If this is not your final decision, I would esteem it a favour if my firm could be given an opportunity to quote to you for your requirements. ….  I am prepared to supply books at present on an equal basis of cost as those mentioned by you in our talk, i.e. 7/6 fiction at 5/10 less 3¾% discount on a monthly settlement ….                   

Mary Fisher

We know a little about Mary Fisher from an interview with her adopted son, David, conducted by Dorothy Rosemann and Julie Miller;

Mary Fisher was born 19th September 1899.  Her sister Joan was born in 1897, then there were twins who died at three months of age.  Her brother Jack was 18 months younger than Mary.  Her father was a steamship company manager at Strahan, then an accountant at McKinlays just after Mary was born.  She went to school at Broadland House – was captain of the hockey team.

She opened her first shop in 1932.  For the first six years it was a circulating library.  Her close friends, Nancy Gilbert, a mothercraft nurse, with whom she lived, and Helen Miller, another Guiding person, helped look after the shop, particularly when she was Girl Guides State Commissioner (1949-1951).  Registration of Mary Fisher Book Club and Cheap Book Company, both 14 The Quadrant.  Shop was sold in 1973.

Mary loved fishing, fossil hunting and photography.  She was taught fly fishing by Max Oldaker’s father.  Mary rode horses until she was 75 years.  At 82 she did a University course in German – she loved German music.

Lived at 14 Lanoma Street until 1950-51 when she moved to Westbury.

Close friend of Mrs Margaret McIntyre.

Mary died 10th January 1985, the day after visiting her sister-in-law.  Her ashes were scattered at Mother Cummings Peak.

Mary Fisher bookplate, c1938.

We also have a brief but fascinating memoir of Mary Fisher from the biography of composer Peter Sculthorpe;

By 1945, Peter was a regular browser at Mary Fisher's Bookshop, in those days in Brisbane Street, one of the best-stocked bookshops outside the capitals. Fisher herself was a classic blue-stocking, who habitually sported a suit coat and tie.... Another school-boy in those years, C. A. Lamp, remembers Fisher's generosity in allowing him to borrow books he could not afford. When the notorious 'Ern Malley' issue of Angry Penguins was unmasked as a hoax in 1944, Fisher ensured that Peter had a copy. In 1945, she sold him the first edition of Eliot's Four Quartets, and for his birthday she suggested his Lutwyche cousins might buy him a new Faber anthology of verse by Auden, Sassoon, Spender, and Lawrence. (1)

We believe later owners of the Bookshop were Michael and Pauline Brewer and that they continued to trade under the Mary Fisher name.

1. Skinner, Graeme,  Peter Sculthorpe: The Making of an Australian Composer (2007), pp 87-88