Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

The Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (est. 1829) in Boston, Massachusetts, was founded "to promote and direct popular education by lectures and other means." Modelled after the recently formed Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London, the Boston group's officers included Daniel Webster, Nathan Hale, Jacob Bigelow, William Ellery Channing, Edward Everett, Nathaniel L. Frothingham, and Abbott Lawrence.[1][2][3] The society published the American Library of Useful Knowledge, a series of scholarly works by British and American authors.[4] Public lectures on a variety of topics were held at Boston's Masonic Temple, and other venues.

History

In 1829 the founders explained their reasons for creating the society:

"From infancy to the age of seventeen, the means provided in this city by public munificence and private enterprise, are ample. From seventeen to the age when young men enter on the more active and responsible duties of their several stations, sufficient opportunity does not appear to be afforded for mental and moral cultivation. At this period of life, when the mind is active and the passions urgent, and when the invitations to profitless amusements are strongest and most numerous, it is desirable that means should be provided for furnishing at a cheap rate, and in an inviting form, such useful information as will not only add to the general intelligence of the young men referred to, but at the same time will prepare them to engage more understandingly, with a deeper interest, and with better prospect of success, in the pursuits to which their lives are to be devoted.
The existing deficiency of such means is clearly a subject of regret; and the undersigned are of opinion that this deficiency may be most easily and fully supplied by courses of Lectures delivered in different parts of the city, under the auspices of a Society, whose sanction may secure to the Lecturers employed, the confidence and resort of the public. It is proposed that the first courses of Lectures should be given to those who are engaged in Trade and Commerce; and that they should include the subjects of Universal Geography and Statistics, and of the Moral, Natural, Political, and Legal Sciences, so far as they may be connected with commercial transactions."[5]

Thus each year the society arranged several public lectures on substantial themes, delivered by substantial thinkers such as Horace Mann, George Bancroft and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Among the lecture attendees was Caroline Healey Dall.[6]

In addition, as part of the society's effort to improve the minds of its members, it published a reading list. The short list of titles "recommended to those members of the Society, who may seek any direction as to the matter and the course of their reading" consisted of:[7]

The society also donated money for purchase of books to Boston's Mercantile Library Association and the Mechanic Apprentices Library Association.[15]

Lectures

Portrait of lecturer John Pickering, by Alvan Clark (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)[16]
Masonic Temple, Tremont St., Boston, 1830s; engraving by Annin & Smith. Many of the society's lectures took place here
Portrait of lecturer John Pierpont
Portrait of lecturer Alonzo Potter
Boston Almanac listing for the society, 1838
Reading list of the society, 1830

See also

References

  1. Salem Gazette; Date: 09-11-1829
  2. Daily Atlas (Boston); Date: 10-07-1841
  3. Elected President. The Sun (Baltimore); Date: 10-05-1842
  4. Rhode Island American and Gazette; Date: 07-15-1831
  5. Founding members of the society: Charles Lowell; William Russell; J. Greely Stevenson; Horatio Robinson; George H. Snelling; Edward Brooks; Chandler Robbins Jr.; George Bond; Abbott Lawrence; Samuel Swett; James Bowdoin; Henry F. Baker; Samuel T. Armstrong ; Enoch Hale Jr.; William J. Loring; Edward Wigglesworth ; Charles C. Nichols; Thomas B. Curtis ; John Lowell Jr.; James Russell; Nathan Hale; Walter Charming; Israel Thorndike Jr.; Charles P. Curtis ; Isaac P. Davis; William Sturgis; Norman Seaver; William E. Channing; Charles G. Loring; Samuel H. Foster. Cf. "Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." In: American journal of education, v.4, no.2, March–April 1829
  6. Helen R. Deese. Alcott's Conversations on the Transcendentalists: The Record of Caroline Dall. American Literature, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), pp. 17-25.
  7. Mechanicks Magazine, and Journal of Publick Internal Improvement, v.1, no.4, May 1830, p. 128.
  8. WorldCat. Minot, George Richards 1758-1802
  9. WorldCat. Bradford, Alden 1765-1843
  10. William Gordon. The history of the rise, progress and establishment of the independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies. v.1 of 3rd American ed. (NY: S. Campbell, 1801)
  11. Henry Lee. Memoirs of the war in the southern department of the United States. Phila.: Bradford and Inskeep, 1812. v.1
  12. Timothy Flint. The history and geography of the Mississippi valley, 2nd ed. Cincinnati: E.H. Flint and L.R. Lincoln, 1832
  13. Alexander Hill Everett. America: or, A general survey of the political situation of the several powers of the western continent, with conjectures on their future prospects. Phila.: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1827
  14. WorldCat. Phillips, Willard
  15. Daily Atlas (Boston); Date: 08-08-1844
  16. MFA collections
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Helen R. Deese and Guy R. Woodall (1986). "A Calendar of Lectures Presented by the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1829-1847)". Studies in the American Renaissance.
  18. John Pickering (1777-1846), linguist, lawyer. Cf. Herringshaw, T. W., Herringshaw's national library of American biography. 1914
  19. M.O. Pickering. Life of John Pickering. 1887
  20. In: Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster. 1903
  21. William Adam (1796-1881). Cf. Andrew Hill. "William Adam." Unitarian Universalist Historical Society Archived September 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.. Retrieved 2010-10-06
  22. In: Holmes. Currents and counter-currents in medical science. 1861

Further reading

American Library of Useful Knowledge

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.