General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen

Founded in 1785 by the city’s skilled workingmen for mutual aid and betterment, the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen has served New Yorkers of ordinary means for over two centuries. The modern incarnation of the society consists of several interdependent sections: the Library and Special Collections, the Small Press Center, and the Mechanics Institute–a tuition-free technical school for adults working in industries related to the building trades. The library was founded in 1820 and is the second oldest subscription library in the city. Rates for public membership are very modest, and you’ll find things here that even the New York Public Library doesn’t have.

Overview

The General Society was created as a charitable effort to provide cultural, educational, and social services to members and their families. The society keeps alive a tradition of transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next that follows the model of artisan culture prevalent during the years of the society’s founding. These were the tumultuous years that followed the Revolutionary War and the establishment of the United States. In November 1785, twenty-two “mechanics and tradesmen”–men who worked, say, as independent master cabinetmakers, shipbuilders, marble carvers, and shoemakers–gathered at Walter Heyer’s Tavern on Pine Street in downtown Manhattan to found a society for mutual aid. These were tough economic times, and the men hoped to help each other and the widows and orphans of their brethren. They also hoped to improve their situation by advocating for politics and laws favorable to the trades and manufacturing, and by reminding elites that neither the city nor nation would prosper without artisan labor.

The historian Sean Wilentz writes that “a typical gathering at the Society’s Mechanic Hall brought intense conversations. In a city where merchants and bankers were the most powerful social and political leaders, the activities of the society testified that artisans, too, were a resourceful and purposeful group.” In 1810, members of the General Society founded the Mechanics’ Bank, hoping to have better access to capital. In 1820, hundreds of artisans contributed their books and money to support the founding of the General Society’s Library for Apprentices, reinforcing the claim by master baker Thomas Mercein, president of the General Society in 1827 and a founder of the library, that mechanics were, as Wilentz quotes, “a body of men who do much in sustaining the prosperity of this Metropolis.”

A man wanting to join the General Society needed to be supported by two members who could attest to his “industry, honesty, and sobriety” and be approved by two-thirds of the membership. The initiation fee originally was five dollars, and monthly dues were twelve and a half cents. At the initiation ceremony, members were charged to “let sobriety, industry, integrity, and uprightness of heart continue to be the ornaments of your name.”

In 1820, the society broke new ground by starting the precursor of the trades school that still exists today on the upper floors. No public schools or formal training institutions then existed for the education and improvement of the working classes. The library was aimed at apprentices working in the crafts and trades–ironworkers, barrelmakers, leatherworkers, bricklayers, and so on–while the day school was for the children of society members, both those who could pay and those who were subsidized as charity students. Securing the future for mechanics and tradesmen was critical. The economy was changing rapidly; and where an artisan of good health and habits once could be reasonably sure of improving his lot, the evolving development of capitalism and the new wage economy had thrown everything in flux. Neither men nor women could be sure where they stood anymore.

The library immediately found an enthusiastic audience. So ardent was the boys’ response that on its opening evening three hundred books were checked out. As the society’s current director Janet Greene points out, the first expenses listed in the society’s minutes were for candles so the library could maintain evening hours. The children worked at their trades during the day, so the evening hours constituted their only free time. “That was the only education these children had,” she points out. “Apprenticeship carried with it the obligation of the master to teach the student to read, and as apprenticeship changed and shortened and the work got segmented, the obligation to teach someone to read really got left behind. I think part of the reason for establishing the library was to honor that tradition.”

Getting in to use the library was considered a privilege, and boys had to produce a letter of reference attesting to their character. Neither women nor girls were welcomed until 1862, when they became the fastest-growing class of readers. Greene stresses that hierarchy was more pronounced in nineteenth-century U.S. society, and even in the institution’s earliest years, when the Apprentices’ Library was nothing more than boxes of books in the back of a schoolroom, the children were not allowed to loiter, and the books would be given to them only if their hands were clean. It was not a cozy place, it was a disciplined place. In later locations, there were reading alcoves, and if you paid your subscription money you could sit there and read your magazines.

Life did not get more secure for working people over the course of the nineteenth century. The General Society persisted in its efforts to serve the city through philanthropy and education to benefit the working classes, and it altered the shape of the institution and its offerings to cope with larger changes. A researcher combing the records today for the titles of past classes offered by the society would get a revealing glimpse of the transformation of American society over the course of nearly two centuries: elementary education in the earliest years; a night school for adults after 1858; typewriting for women; classes in lettering, magazine illustration, jewelry design, architectural drawing, and mechanical drafting; industrial electricity; training for occupations needed in wartime, such as radio operations during World War II; construction project management; visual literacy; and computer-assisted drafting.

By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand!

The society’s elegant 44th Street building is its fifth location. Andrew Carnegie, a member, paid to renovate the building after the society bought it in 1898. It is a designated New York City Landmark (Lamb & Rich, 1890; additions, Ralph Townsend, 1903-05).

Janet Greene is convinced that this unique institution begun in the eighteenth century has much to offer to us in the twenty-first. She explains, “The General Society’s educational programs in the past were founded on the principle that skill is important, that master craftspeople should teach craftspeople, and that people of all trades deserve the opportunity to achieve a well-rounded education. It takes many skills to support urban life, from writers to printers, from architects to bricklayers, from engineers to electricians, and hundreds of other occupations in between. Urban life and arts are the products of many hands and minds. It’s important for people to understand that it takes all those people to make our city; our life is larger than just any one part. By surviving over all this time, the General Society can help us learn something of the people who lived in and built this city in the past, and can attract younger people to participate in all aspects of building its future.”

The library is open to the public. To check out books you have to subscribe, but rates are very modest. Hours: 11am-7pm, Mon. & Thurs.; 11am-5pm Tues & Weds; 9am-5pm Fri. Hours subject to change; call 212-921-1767. For info, see the website at www.generalsociety.org. Also see the society’s lecture series and its amazing Mossman Lock Collection. Email library@generalsociety.org.