View source for Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

{{Short description|1826–1846 British organization}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
The '''Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge''' ('''SDUK''') was founded in London in 1826, mainly at the instigation of [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] MP [[Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]], with the object of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain a formal education or who preferred [[autodidactism|self-education]]. It was a largely Whig organisation, and published inexpensive texts intended to adapt scientific and similarly high-minded material for the rapidly-expanding reading public over twenty years until it was disbanded in 1846.<ref>Smith, Harold (1974). ''The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation''. Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press.</ref>

== Origins ==
[[File:Lecture-Hall of the Greenwich Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge RMG PY5856.jpg|thumb|Lecture-Hall of the [[Greenwich]] Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge at its opening on 15 February 1843]]
Henry Brougham considered that mass education was an essential prerequisite for political reform. In October 1824 he contributed an article on "scientific education of the people" to the Whig ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'', in which he argued that popular education would be greatly enhanced by the encouragement of cheap publications to complement the numerous recently founded provincial [[mechanics' institutes]]. The following year a version of this article was issued as a pamphlet entitled ''Practical Observations upon the Education of the People Addressed to the Working Classes and Their Employers'',<ref> ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ajdLAQAAMAAJ Practical Observations upon the Education of the People Addressed to the Working Classes and Their Employers]''</ref> selling at least 19 editions. In April 1825 Brougham set about trying to found a society to produce cheap educational books, although it was not until November 1826 that the SDUK was formally founded.<ref>Topham, Jonathan R. (2007). ‘Publishing 'Popular Science' in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain’ in ''Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-Century Sites and Experiences'', ed. by Fyfe, Aileen, and Lightman, Bernard. Chicago: Chicago University Press. pp. 160-61.</ref>
One of those present at the first meeting was the philosopher [[James Mill]], and the founding committee included many Fellows of the [[Royal Society]] and Members of Parliament, as well as twelve founding committee members of the newly formed [[University College London]].<ref>Smith, Harold (1974). ''The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation''. Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press. pp. 46–47.</ref>

==Aims==
SDUK publications were intended for the working class and the middle class, as an antidote to the more radical output of the pauper presses. The Society set out to achieve this by acting as an intermediary between authors and publishers by launching several series of publications. Its printers included Baldwin & Cradock, later succeeded by [[Charles Knight (publisher)|Charles Knight]]. The SDUK commissioned work and dealt with the printers, and finally distributed the publications; profits were used to continue the Society's work. By using the new technologies of mass production, such as [[Printing press#Industrial printing presses|steam presses]] and [[Stereotype (printing)|stereotype]], the Society and its printers kept costs low and were able to sell the books at much cheaper prices than was usual.<ref>James A. Secord (2000).  ''Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age''.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 14-19.</ref>

The Society was not without opposition, and the ''[[Literary Gazette]]'' mounted a campaign on behalf of the book trade, supported by publications such as the ''Royal Lady's Magazine'', who complained in the early 1830s that:<blockquote>
Few persons are aware that the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge have done, and are still doing, more to ruin the Book trade than all the change of times, the want of money, the weight of taxes, and even the law of Libel have accomplished; yet they – a committee of Noblemen and pretended Patriots – are permitted to go on in their unfeeling, nay, considering the hundreds of thousands engaged in the Book trade, we may add brutal, career, without interruption.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wm8EAAAAQAAJ&dq=Society+for+the+Diffusion+of+Useful+Knowledge++charity&pg=PA77 The ''Royal Lady's Magazine'']</ref></blockquote>

==Activities==
[[File:A_box_of_usefull_knowledge._(BM_1868,0808.12978).jpg|thumb|"A Box of Useful Knowledge" (1832), artist unknown. The image portrays Brougham as Lord Chancellor, with SDUK and other publications inside.|alt=Image of Henry Brougham's head hinging open to reveal SDUK publications.]]The SDUK publishing programme began with the ''Library of Useful Knowledge''.<ref>[http://www.publishinghistory.com/library-of-useful-knowledge.html Library of Useful Knowledge (Baldwin & Craddock; then Charles Knight) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 14 June 2018.</ref> Sold for [[British sixpence coin|sixpence]] and published fortnightly, its books focused on scientific topics.  Like many other works in the new genre of popular science—such as the ''[[Bridgewater Treatises]]'' and [[Humphry Davy]]'s ''Consolations in Travel''—the books of the ''Library of Useful Knowledge'' imbued different scientific fields with concepts of progress: [[Uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarianism]] in geology, the [[nebular hypothesis]] in astronomy, and the [[scala naturae]] in the life sciences. According to historian [[James A. Secord]], such works met a demand for "general concepts and simple laws", and in the process helped establish the authority of professional science and specialised scientific disciplines.<ref>James A. Secord (2000). ''Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  pp 55–62; quotation from p 55.</ref>

The first volume of the ''Library of Useful Knowledge'', an introduction to the series by Brougham on the [https://books.google.com/books?id=vgsUAAAAQAAJ "objects, advantages and pleasures of science"], sold over 33,000 copies by the end of 1829. Despite the initial success of the series, however, it soon became clear that it was too demanding for many readers, and the Society began to offer more varied and attractive publications, starting with the ''[[Library of Entertaining Knowledge]]'' (1829–38) and the ''[[The Penny Magazine|Penny Magazine]]'' (1832–1845), a lavishly illustrated<ref>Anderson, Patricia (1991).''The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture, 1790''–''1860''. Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref> weekly that achieved unprecedented success, with sales in excess of 200,000 copies in the first year.<ref>Bennett, Scott (1982). 'Revolutions in Thought: Serial Publication and the Mass Market for Reading.' In ''The Victorian Periodical Press: Samplings and Soundings'', ed. Shattock, Joanne, and Wolff, Michael. Leicester: Leicester University Press. pp. 225-57.</ref> The scope and scale of the Society's activities expanded further over the following decade, and included the production of a ''[[Penny Cyclopaedia]]'' (1833–1843) in 27 volumes. 

Although sales of these publications may have been more among the middle- than the working-classes,<ref>Webb, R. K. (1955). ''The British Working-Class Reader, 1790-1848: Literary and Social Tension''. London: Allen and Unwin. p. 72.</ref> the Society had a significant role in pioneering "the idea of cheap, improving publications, freely and easily available, well produced and distributed on a scale hitherto unknown," and became iconic of the "[[March of Intellect]]".<ref>Smith, Harold (1974). ''The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation''. Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press. p. 37.</ref> The publisher Charles Knight bears much of the credit for the success that SDUK publications had; he engaged in extensive promotional campaigns, and worked to improve the readability of the sometimes abstruse material.<ref name="Secord, pp 48-50">James A. Secord (2000). ''Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  pp 48–50</ref> 

The Society's continuing commitment to the high intellectual standards with which it was conceived probably contributed to its ultimate decline, as subscribers and sale of publications fell away. The ''Biographical Dictionary'' begun in 1842 was immensely ambitious and contributed to the Society's demise.<ref>Smith, Harold (1974). ''The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation''. Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press. pp.13–14, 33.</ref>

== Main publication series ==
[[File:The Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge - Naples 1835.jpg|thumb|Map of Naples published by SDUK]]
[[File:Walker & SDUK (Africa, Southern Europe and the Eastern Coast of Brazil) 1831 UTA.jpg|thumb|Map of Africa published by SDUK]]
*''Library of Useful Knowledge'' (1827–1846) <ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Harold |title=The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation |publisher=Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press. |year=1974 |pages=29–36}}</ref>
*''[[British Almanac]]'' (1828–1914; and associated ''Companion'') <ref name=":0" />
*''[[Library of Entertaining Knowledge]]'' (1829–1838) <ref name=":0" />
*''Working Man's Companion'' (1831–1832) <ref name=":0" />
*''Quarterly Journal of Education'' (1831–1835) <ref name=":0" />
*''[[The Penny Magazine|Penny Magazine]]'' (1832–1845) <ref name=":0" />
*''Gallery of Portraits'' (1832–1834) <ref name=":0" />
*''[[Penny Cyclopaedia]]'' (1833–1843) <ref name=":0" />
*''Library for the Young'' (1834–1840) <ref name=":0" />
*''Farmers Series'', which included works by [[William Youatt]] on the dog, the horse, cattle, and sheep (1834–1837)<ref>{{cite DNB|last=Clarke|first=Ernest|wstitle=Youatt, William|volume=63}}</ref>
*''Biographical Dictionary'' (1842–1844) <ref name=":0" />
*''Maps'', primarily in a two-volume set, and prepared to a very high standard (many drawn by [[William Barnard Clarke|W.B. Clarke]], architect). The Society was a pioneer in utilising "volunteered geographic information".<ref>Tim St. Onge, [https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/07/maps-for-the-masses-geography-in-the-society-for-the-diffusion-of-useful-knowledge/ Maps for the Masses: Geography in the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge], Library of Congress blog, 13 July 2016.</ref>

==In popular culture==
*[[Thomas Love Peacock]] satirised the SDUK in 1831 in ''[[Crotchet Castle]]'' as the 'Steam Intellect Society':<ref>B. Wilson, ''Decency and Disorder'' (London 2007) p. 377</ref> a vicarage is almost set on fire by a "cook taking it into her head to study hydrostatics, in a sixpenny tract, published by the Steam Intellect Society".<ref>T S Peacock, ''Nightmare Abbey and Crotchet Castle'' (London 1947) P. 106</ref>
*In the Notes to [[Anthony Trollope]]'s book, ''[[Framley Parsonage]]'', published by Oxford University Press as a World's Classic in 1980, P. D. Edwards writes that Trollope's character, Lord Boanerges, "may have been modelled in some respects on Lord Brougham.... founder of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge".
*References to the Society are rare in the modern era, but within [[Steampunk]] culture, it is not entirely uncommon to refer to the Society itself and/or its better-known publications in an attempt to lend Victorian verisimilitude. The in-house publishing organ of the [[Museum of Jurassic Technology]] in Los Angeles is called the Society for the Diffusion of Useful ''Information''; while many communities in North America have established Societies for Learning in Retirement which are partially modelled along the same lines with the goal of disseminating knowledge amongst people who, although retired, are still interested in continuing to learn.
*The [[University of Toronto Mississauga#Blackwood Art Gallery|Blackwood Gallery]], a contemporary art gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga, has published a series of free print and PDF broadsheets since 2018, which adopt the SDUK moniker. These publications reflect on contemporary issues in the arts, humanities, and social sciences by questioning the nature of “useful knowledge,” in dialogue with the history of the  SDUK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.blackwoodgallery.ca/publications/index.html|title=Publications|website=Blackwood Gallery|access-date=April 27, 2020}}</ref>

== Related societies ==
An independent [[Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]] was founded as part of the [[Lyceum movement]] in the United States in 1829. It sponsored lectures by such speakers as [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and was active from 1829 to 1947.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Helen R. Deese |author2=Guy R. Woodall |year=1986|title=A Calendar of Lectures Presented by the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1829–1847)|journal=Studies in the American Renaissance|pages=17–67|jstor=30227545}}</ref> Later, an independent '''American Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge''' was founded,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The American Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is Founded in New York : History of Information |url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=5234 |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=www.historyofinformation.com}}</ref> which published a fifty-volume set of books called ''[[The American School Library]]''.<ref name="Barnard">{{cite journal|last1=Barnard|first1=Henry|date=1865|title=The American Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVfz5IJraPMC&dq=%22American+Society+for+the+Diffusion+of+Useful+Knowledge%22&pg=PA239|journal=The American Journal of Education|volume=15|pages=239–245|access-date=20 June 2020}}</ref> [[Henry David Thoreau]] cites the Society in his essay "Walking" in which he jestingly proposes a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance.<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/walking3.html#3 Thoreau's Walking – 3<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704002031/http://thoreau.eserver.org/walking3.html|date=4 July 2010}}</ref>

== Collections ==
The archives of the Society are held by University College London, having been deposited by the Society after it closed in 1848.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |title=Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Archive |url=https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SDUK |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=UCL Archives Catalogue}}</ref> The archive spans 200 volumes and 121 boxes.<ref name=":1" /> It includes minutes, financial records, unpublished manuscripts, and correspondence.<ref name=":1" />

[[University College London]] also holds the papers of the Society's founder, [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |title=Brougham Papers |url=https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=BROUGHAM |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=UCL Archives Catalogue |language=en}}</ref> The papers consist primarily of Brougham's incoming correspondence, totalling around 50,000 items, and material relating to his legal and political career.<ref name=":2" />

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|2}}

=== Sources ===
* Patricia Anderson, ''The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture, 1790''–''1860''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
*Ian J. Barrow, 'India for the Working Classes: The Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' ''Modern Asian Studies'' 38 (2004): 677–702.
*Scott Bennett, 'Revolutions in Thought: Serial Publication and the Mass Market for Reading.' In ''The Victorian Periodical Press: Samplings and Soundings'', ed. Shattock, Joanne, and Wolff, Michael. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1982. pp. 225-57.
*Mead T. Cain, 'The Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: A Publishing History', ''Imago Mundi'', Vol. 46 (1994), pp.&nbsp;151–167.
*Valerie Gray, ''Charles Knight: Educator, Publisher, Writer''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
*Monica C Grobel, 'The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1826-1846' (Unpublished MA diss., 4 vols, London University, 1933). https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/155jbua/alma990005799210204761
*Thomas Palmelund Johansen. 'The World Wide Web of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: On the Global Circulation of Broughamite Educational Literature, 1826–1848,' ''Victorian Periodicals Review'' 50 (2017): 703–20.
*Richard Johnson, '"Really Useful Knowledge:" Radical Education and Working-Class Culture 1790–1848.' In ''Working-Class Culture: Studies in History and Theory'', ed. by John Clarke, Chas Crichter, and Richard Johnson (London: Hutchinson, 1979), 75–102.
* Janet Percival, 'The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826–1848: A handlist of the Society's correspondence and papers', The Library of University College London, Occasional Papers, No 5 1978, {{ISSN|0309-3352}}
* James A. Secord.  ''Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.  {{ISBN|0-226-74410-8}}
*James A. Secord.  ''Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age''.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0226203287}}
*Harold Smith. ''The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826''–''1846: A Social and Bibliographical Evaluation''. Halifax, N.S.: Dalhousie University Press, 1974.
*Jonathan R. Topham, ‘Science and Popular Education in the 1830s: The Role of the Bridgewater Treatises’, ''British Journal for the History of Science'', 25 (1992), 397-430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007087400029587
*Jonathan R. Topham. ‘Publishing "Popular Science" in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain.’ In ''Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-Century Sites and Experiences'', ed. by Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007. pp. 135-168.
* [[University College London]] houses the archives of the Society and a virtually a complete set of publications.
*Webb, R. K. ''The British Working-Class Reader, 1790-1848: Literary and Social Tension''. London: Allen and Unwin, 1955.

==See also==

{{Category see also|Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat}}
* [https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SDUK Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Archive] at [[University College London]]
* [https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=BROUGHAM Brougham Papers] at [[University College London]]
* [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/sduk.htm Bloomsbury Institutions: SDUK]
* [https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/155jbua/alma990005799210204761 The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826-1846] (1932 thesis by Monica C. Grobel)
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge |sopt=t}}
* [http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3A%22Society+for+the+Diffusion+of+Useful+Knowledge%22&qt=advanced&dblist=638 au:"Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge"] at [[WorldCat]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Education in London]]
[[Category:Philosophy of education]]
[[Category:Science writing organizations]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1826]]
[[Category:1826 establishments in the United Kingdom]]