ABSTRACT
The research has identified four key areas that reveal that mechanics’ institutes provided a major contribution to working-class adult education between 1824 and circa 1900. The discussion has concentrated on class and female membership, technical education as a result of the Great Exhibition and foreign competition, and curriculum developments. Other indicators, including membership patterns and accommodation developments, have also been highlighted, to further point towards their success. The Mechanics’ Institute Movement was not declining by 1850, as Hudson feared. By taking a longer view than most historians have, this book argues that the Movement continued to grow and be successful after 1851. Although scientific lectures and classes were offered throughout the period, the introduction of elementary education at mechanics’ institutes, for children as well as adults, and relevant scientific and technological subjects relating to industry, encouraged and developed a much wider membership. The result was that the mechanics’ institutes often had to move into larger rented accommodation or build their own, which many did. While the founders were often from the wealthy classes, the majority of members were working men and women who often found themselves mixing with the professional classes, in the larger town institutes at least. Individuals, such as George Birkbeck, made important contributions to the success of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement. Radicals, particularly the Unitarians, supported the education of both men and women of the working population, supporting a relevant curriculum that was required to support semi-rural and urban industrialisation. Indeed, presidents of mechanics’ institutes were often Unitarians themselves. The Movement was given national credibility through public recognition offered by the Society of Arts, who organised national examinations in the local institutes. This fitted well with those who used mechanics’ institutes. Qualifications validated the efforts of those who sought to ‘better themselves’. The number of patents licensed in mechanics’ institute towns is evidence that the institutes were offering relevant curricula to support technological developments and progress. Finally, specific research in relation to the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics’ Institutes has put the national Mechanics’ Institute Movement into a regional and local context. The 171research has supported the hypothesis that mechanics’ institutes continued to be successful, and their numbers grew after 1850 up to and beyond the passing of the technical instruction acts, which were to provide a firm base on which state-funded adult education would be established. The order of the chapters in this volume has provided historical chronology with regard to the growth and development of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement and national events that had an impact on it.
