ABSTRACT
The Mechanics’ Institutes were not only to be found in Britain but were also established overseas. By 1850, Hudson (1851) identified that several had also been founded in various parts of the world including Germany, where at Hamburg a mechanics’ institute had been opened in 1848 ‘for the instruction of labourers, by means of evening classes’. However, there was such a well-established education system for all that mechanics’ institutes were not found in such large numbers as in Britain. India had several, amongst them the Calcutta Mechanics’ Institute, which offered lectures in physical science, manufacturing, commerce and agriculture, and Bombay Mechanics’ Institute offered courses in science, manufacturing, printing and lithography, pottery and metallurgy. Mechanics’ institutes were also founded in Canada, holding exhibitions ‘of a practical nature’. They were established in Montreal, Quebec, Hamilton and Toronto, and by 1850 Niagara and Amherstburgh also had mechanics’ institutes (Hudson: 219). New Zealand had a mechanics’ institute at Port Nicholson, founded in 1842, with a reading room and library, which Whitelock (1974: 87) believes became ‘the forerunner of scores of mechanics’ and literary institutes in that colony’. In 1850 the Wellington Athenaeum and Mechanics’ Institute, which had a museum and library, was opened in the same country (Hudson: 221).
