An elegant plan of Dublin featuring fourteen illustrations of the city's landmark buildings, including St. Patrick's Church, the Bank of Ireland, and Trinity College. Original colour.

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1826-42)

The Society was founded in 1826, largely at the instigation of Lord Brougham, with the object in their own words, 'the imparting useful information to all classes of the community, particularly to such as are unable to avail themselves of experienced teachers, or may prefer learning by themselves'.

It sought to achieve this object by acting as the intermediary between authors and publishers in several different and often ambitious series of publications. The Society fixed the form and selling price of treatises, frequency of publication and payments to authors. The publisher made arrangement with the printer and organised the distribution and sale of publications.

Maps were published serially in numbers containing two maps in each and eventually 209 plates were published over 14 years. The maps were published under the title ‘A series of Modern Maps, Modern and Ancient’ but their greatest publication was an atlas of the world, entitled 'Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge'.

Chapman and Hall published the plates under the direct supervision of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge until 1842. In 1852 the plates were sold to George Cox, then to Edward Stanford in 1856, to Thomas Letts in 1877, and finally to Mason & Payne in 1885.

This example is from the Thomas Letts edition of 1879.