Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
MUTUAL INSTRUCTION ASSOCIATION, n.comb. A kind of society or club formed esp. in rural areas for the reading of papers by its members and the dissemination of knowledge by discussion and the exchange of information on learned subjects. The first of such so-called societies was formed at Rhynie in Aberdeenshire in 1846 and an organised movement developed therefrom with extensions overseas during the second half of the 19th c. The orig. society after a more tenuous existence in recent years came to an end in 1962. The name was later changed to Mutual Improvement Association or Society.Slk. 1881 J. Russell Yarrow (1894) 186:
The members of the Mutual Improvement Society, on whose invitation I appear here.Slg. 1896 W. Harvey Kennethcrook 108:
There is a Mutual Improvement Association in the village today and that institution had its parent in an establishment of the dominie. . . . In the winter time these gatherings were held regularly, and from them sprung the now flourishing “Mutual Improvement Society.”Abd. 1906 A. Gray Talks with Farm-Servants 35:
You should form yourselves into a Mutual Improvement Association, and make your evenings enjoyable and profitable by reading time about.Abd. 1947 I. J. Simpson Education in Abd. 203:
The Rhynie Mutual Instruction Class actively encouraged similar ventures elsewhere. Emigrants from Rhynie formed societies in the colonies. The Aberdeen and Banffshire Mutual Instruction Union, to which ten clubs belonged, published for six months in 1850 The Rural Echo; and Magazine of the North of Scotland Mutual Instruction Associations, with a monthly circulation of over 1,000.Abd. 1960 Stat. Acc.3 582:
In 1950 the Leslie and Premnay Church Mutual Improvement Society, which lapsed in 1934, was successfully revived as a community group for social service and cultural pursuits.
