The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge was founded by John and Earl Russell, and Henry Brougham, later Lord Chancellor of England in 1827. The Society’s main purpose was to encourage universal literacy by publishing numbers of books of good quality that would be affordable to the poor. The best known of their publications was their atlas produced in the first half of the 19th century, originally entitled “Maps Of The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge”, first issued by Baldwin and Cradock, and then re-issued by other publishers.
