Open Collections

[Bookplate for Mechanics Institute of Montreal]

In black ink. The seal of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal is located above with pre-printed lines for library information below. The seal contains an escutcheon quartered per saltire with argent (silver) and gules (red) backgrounds. The chief quarter features a train car, the sinister quarter a couped arm with hammer, the base quarter a lever, the dexter quarter a telescope. At the fess point the institution's motto appears.

Heraldry; Libraries

Mechanics Institute of Montreal

Still Image

The concept of mechanical institutes emerged in the 1820s in England. They were conceived as collaborative, voluntary associations of men seeking to further their education. Services offered included ; reading rooms, lending libraries, lectures, and in the case of Montreal, even musical soirees and exhibitions. As their institutional popularity declined, many mechanics' institutes were closed or integrated into the public library system ; today, the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal remains the last mechanical institute in Canada. The Montreal Mechanics Institute has its origins in 1828 although it was not formally incorporated until 1845. Founders of the institute included, John Molson and Louis-Joseph Papineau. It first opened with it's own building in 1855 on the corners of St. Jacques and St Pierre, and in 1920 moved into a new building at 1200 Atwater Ave, where it still remains. In 1962, it changed it's name to the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal and in 2005 the building was declared a National Historic Site and is considered the oldest lending library in Canada. For another very similar bookplate, with only a slight variation in font, see BP MUR CAN I M434a. There are several bookplates for the Mechanics Institute of Montreal in the Thomas Murray collection ; all display the same seal, with slight textual variation. This plate appears to be a poor reproduction of earlier relief-printed plates from the same institution.
References:
1) McGuire, Susan. 'Atwater Library History' Atwater Library and Computer Centre Acessed 24 Nov. 2009 from http://www.atwaterlibrary.ca/en/taxonomy/term/8
2) Gaffield, Chad 'Mechanics' Institute' The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed 24 Nov. 2009 from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005192
3) Hearman, Elsbeth 'The inglorious arts of peace: exhibitions in Canadian society during the Nineteenth Century' (1999) University of Toronto Press. Accessed 24 Nov. 2009 from http://books.google.ca/books?id=_eL2cNSmBW0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

RBSC Bookplates

2010

Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from Rare Books and Special Collections: http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca

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