Lois Wignall
‘The “Mechanically Literate Entrepreneur” Reconsidered: Subscription Libraries and the Industrial Revolution’
Biography
Utilising a library history approach to examine economic and social change, my PhD project probes Margaret Jacob’s assertion that industrialisation was led by the “mechanically literate entrepreneur”, who was well versed in the latest technical and scientific knowledge (2007, p.207). By introducing an original regional geography, the ‘commercial-industrial nexus’, which encompasses the early commercial and industrial centres of England’s northwest and midlands, my research assesses the extent to which voluntary membership libraries fostered technical literary and a ‘scientific culture’ through bookish and associational provision. In so doing, it brings these previously overlooked forums into conversation with knowledge access institutions dominating the existing literature, such as literary and philosophical societies and Mechanics’ Institutes.
Primary Supervisor: Professor Mark Towsey
Secondary Supervisor: Dr William Ashworth
Research Interests
I am primarily interested in the origins of British industrialisation and associated historiographical debates, particularly those between ‘cultural’ and ‘statist’ scholars. My research attempts to situate libraries within these arguments, rather than privilege the cultural approach per se, emphasising the importance of illiberal state measures — such as colonial extraction, enslavement, labour exploitation, protectionism, and regulation — in providing the fertile ground for cultural expansion. Beyond my specific research focus, I am also interested in how mechanisation and its justifications affected the lived, working experience.