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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Saint John

New Brunswick

Mechanics’ Institute

Friday, October 13, 1882

The House Beautiful

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VERIFICATION

Newspaper reports

The Gazette (Montreal, QC), October 14, 1882, 1 (top)

Daily Whig And Courier (Bangor-Maine), October 19, 1882, 3 (below)

Related:

On this occasion Wile’s subject was The House Beautiful, the talk he reserved for when he lectured in the same city more than once. Wilde had earlier lectured in Saint John on October 5, 1882.

For more on Wilde’s “arrest” see note at Moncton.

Mechanics’ Institute to the left of St. John’s Anglican church (the ‘Stone Church’), c. 1865.

Venue

Mechanics’ Institute

Carleton Street, Saint John, NB

Organized: 1838

Built: 1840

Accommodation: Lecture Hall, Museum, Library, Reading Room, Committee Room, other apartments

Closed: 1890, later demolished

Accommodation

Royal Hotel

King and Germain Streets, Saint John, NB

Built: 1881

Demolished: 1970s

Not Wilde’s Final lecture

It was long thought by biographers, and all previous chronologies, that Wilde’s second lecture in Saint John was the final lecture of the North American tour. See Bridgeton, NJ and Yorkville, NY for two later lectures.

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026