Founded in 1833, the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts continues to operate to this day and is the oldest continuous lending library in Australia. This 1837 catalogue is the earliest surviving catalogue of the institute. Rules of the library are listed in the front of the catalogue. The catalogue is loosely arranged alphabetically, with the author or title of a work used interchangeably as the primary identifier. It is divided into three categories, with the first section simply titled ‘Catalogue’ containing non-fiction, primarily works of history, science, education, travel, and philosophical works. This section contains a number of encyclopedias and ‘cabinet libraries’, such as 75 volumes of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopædia, including volume 1 and 4 of Walter Scott’s History of Scotland, and 19 volumes of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library (also edited by the Irish scientist Dionysius Lardner), which consisted mainly of geographical and travel works, like The Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt (1832) and Hugh Murray’s Historical and Descriptive Account of British India (1832). Several educational works by women are included in this section. Given her connection to the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge it is unsurprising that Jane Marcet proves popular, with four titles of her Conversations listed: ‘Chemistry’ (1805), ‘Vegetable Physiology’ (1829), ‘Political Economy’ (1816), and ‘Natural Philosophy’ (1822). Works by Harriet Martineau and Hannah More also feature.
The second category is defined as ‘Novels, Tales, Romances and Poetry &c, &c, &c’ and rather uniquely, for a colonial library of this time, contains all of Jane Austen’s novels. This section contains many publisher series, such as 51 volumes of The British Novelists edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and published by F.C. and J. Rivington, 45 volumes of The British Essayists and 13 volumes of Henry Colburn’s ‘Modern Novelists’. Unsurprisingly, Walter Scott makes a large impression with 48 volumes of his ‘Novels and Romances’, 28 volumes of his prose works, and 12 volumes of his poetical works. Byron, too, leaves a mark with 17 volumes of The Works of Byron which include Thomas Moore’s biography. Other notable inclusions in this section are 11 titles by Marryatt and Frankenstein (1818) and Lodore (1835) by Mary Shelley. Several romances and gothic works are also listed, including Radcliffe’s The Italian (1797). The final category consists of two pages of books on loan to the School.
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