Mechanics' Institutes emerged in early nineteenth century Britain as a means of self-improvement for the "honest workingman." They served skilled workers as a communications network throughout the remainder of the century. In Halifax and Saint John they featured uplifting lectures by members of the middle class, a reading room and a lending library, all aimed at providing working men with the opportunity to meet one another for "mutual betterment." Governments, anxious to inculcate tradesmen with middle-class values of thrift and sobriety, sometimes subsidized the cost of building and operating Mechanics' Institutes. In promoting "useful knowledge" as an antidote to the limitations of colonial society, the institutes were part of a broader awakening of British North American society which saw a wide range of literary and cultural expressions in the mid-nineteenth century. The Saint John Institute, a fine example of revival-style architecture, continued to be used as a public meeting place long after it had ceased to function as a workers' institution.
