An Anglican mission organization established in England in 1698 and still in operation today, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) began work in Australia in the late eighteenth century, establishing the first library by sending 4,000 books out with the First Fleet in 1788.
Divided into two catalogues (‘list of books and tracts’ and ‘Supplemental Catalogue’), this 1834 collection of approximately 165 titles contains fewer titles than the previous 1828 catalogue. The price of the books in pounds, shillings, and pence is recorded on the right-hand side of the catalogue. Now in alphabetical order (by author or title), the collection is still primarily made up of bibles, testaments, prayer books, homilies, sermons, catechisms, devotions, and religious tracts. Of note are D’Oyly and Mant’s Bible (an annotated bible commissioned by the SPCK costing the substantial sum of £3 9s 6d) and a collection of titles by Sarah Trimmer. See the previous 1826 and 1828 catalogues for further details of notable holdings. In this catalogue, religious and moral texts have been supplemented (particularly by songs, hymns, and school books for children), whereas some secular works have been removed, including all voyages and travels, lives, and works of fiction and poetry apart from John Bowler’s Poems Divine and Moral (1821). Works of history, philosophy, and natural history remain. Of note is the addition of William Paley’s Sermons (1830).
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