This 1866 Catalogue of the Kyneton Mechanics’ Institute (est. 1859) begins with a detailed account of the rules and regulations of the institute signed by the Librarian and Secretary, William C. Grimley. Arranged according to categories such as ‘Agriculture, Commerce and Statistics’ and ‘Medical Science and Chemistry’, the catalogue attempts to record more bibliographic information than many of the mechanics’ institute catalogues of the period. Works under each category are arranged alphabetically according to their title and many have the author and volumes recorded and they were clearly proud of certain editions, recording them as ‘rare’ and including the date, for example: ‘Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion 1641 (rare edition 1707)’. Given the mechanics’ institute’s perceived role in education, of particular interest are the titles recorded as ‘student’ editions, for example: Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Liddell’s A History of Rome (1855) and an edition of the History of England (1754-61) recorded as a ‘student’s Hume’.
The catalogue includes an impressive selection of biographical works and speeches (99 titles) and the history (80 titles) and miscellaneous and collected works (97 titles) categories are equally well-stocked. The largest category is the ‘Works of Fiction and Amusement’ with 271 titles, close to a third of the entire collection. Charles Dickens, Maria Edgeworth, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Captain Marryatt were all popular choices, but unsurprisingly Walter Scott had the most fictional works collected. Interestingly Edgeworth’s non-fiction works, An Essay on Irish Bulls (1802), An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification 1795), and her collection of letters are also included in the ‘Lectures and Letters’ category. Her friend Jane Marcet also makes an appearance in the politics section, with her Conversations on Political Economy (1816) in good accompany with works by Adam Smith, J. S. Mill and J. R. McCulloch.
Unfortunately, in September 1867 the Kyneton Mechanics’ Institute suffered a severe fire and the ‘total destruction’ of the ‘valuable library’ is recorded in the Bendigo Advertiser. All those rare editions were lost.
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