Florence

The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1826 - 1848) was a Whiggish organization founded in 1828 on the initiative of English idealist Henry Peter Brougham. The Society's admirable aim was to distribute useful information through a series of publications to the English working and middle classes. It promoted self-education and egalitarian sharing of all knowledge. Although closely associated with the University of London and publishing houses such as Baldwin and Cradock, Chapman and Hall, and Charles Knight, the Society failed to achieve its goals and closed its doors in 1848. Most likely, the failure of the Society was due to the fact that its publications were too expensive for the lower-middle class market for which they were intended, but not large and refined enough to interest the aristocratic market. Nevertheless, the Society managed to publish several extraordinary atlases that were very detailed and sophisticated. Their most important atlas consisted of some 200 separately issued maps, initially published by Baldwin and Cradock and sold by subscription from 1829 to 1844. Later, the Society combined the maps into a single world atlas published under the Chapman and Hall label. At the time, this atlas was unprecedented in quality, scope, and affordability. Today, the Society's maps, or S.D.U.K. as it is commonly called, are among the most impressive examples of mid-nineteenth-century English mass cartographic publishing. S.D.U.K. is best known for its beautiful and accurately detailed city plans.