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This book contains the following papers about the history and role of Australia's mechanics' institutes and schools of arts: "'The Light of Heaven Itself': The Contribution of the Institutes to Australia's Cultural History" (Candy); "Dispelling 'the Stagnant Waters of Ignorance': The Early Institutes in Context" (Webby); "The Melbourne Mechanics' Institute: Its First Thirty Years" (Eastwood); "The Advantages of Mechanics' Institutions: Part I" (Osborne); "'A Slight Encouragement': The Colonial Book Grant and the Victorian Parliament, 1857-1860" (Hubber); "Conflict, Consensus and Culture: The Geelong Mechanics' Institute to 1900" (Askew); "'Respectable' and 'Useful': The Institute Movement in Western Australia" (Rose, Birman, White); "The Education of Adults in Schools of Arts in Colonial New South Wales" (Whiting); "Some Aspects of the Role of the Institutes in Technical Education in New South Wales, 1878-1916" (Laurent); "The Movement's Contribution to the Visual Arts: Three New South Wales Case Studies" (Riley); "Foundations and Fortunes of the Mechanics' Institutes and Schools of Arts in New South Wales" (Raath); "The Architecture of the Institutes: Selected Examples from Queensland" (Kellermeier); "Growth and Decline of the Queensland Schools of Arts, 1849-1981" (Inkster); "The Rockhampton School of Arts Library and Museum in the Nineteenth Century" (Murdoch); "A Tale of Two Cities: Mechanics' Institutes in Hobart and Launceston" (Petrow); "The Advantages of Mechanics' Institutions: Part II" (Lillie); "A Close Affiliation: Coordination of Institutes in South Australia" (Talbot); "'Improvement' and 'Progress': The South Australian Institutes after World War I" (Bettesworth); and "'This Meeting Is Now Closed': The Social Significance of the Institutes in Retrospect" (Laurent). An index and list of institutions referred to and/or illustrated are also included. (MN)