Valuable Secrets Concerning Arts and Trades, published by J. Bumstead's Printing Office, Boston, 1798. Maine State Museum. Gift of Kenneth E. Jewett, 84.20.3.
Valuable Secrets Concerning Arts and Trades, published by J. Bumstead's Printing Office, Boston, 1798. Maine State Museum. Gift of Kenneth E. Jewett, 84.20.3.
Books such as this were kept in the libraries of craftsmen’s associations to advance their members’ education. In a time when grammar school was the limit of a young person's education, apprenticeships served as further education for most teenage boys. Master craftsmen, sometimes known as "mechanics," provided on-the-job training by increasing job responsibility to their apprentices and including them in professional associations.
Mechanics banded together into societies to improve themselves through education and fellowship. In Portland, craftsmen formed the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association in 1815. Later, craftsmen started the Bangor Mechanics Association with the stated goal "to improve its members in the theory and practice of their . . . arts and professions, and to promote . . . all good and useful knowledge."