page_title: Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
section_title: Lectures
hierarchical_section_title: Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge / Lectures
caption_attribution_description: Bishop Alonzo Potter (1800-1865)
context_page_description: The Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 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. The society published the American Library of Useful Knowledge, a series of scholarly works by British and American authors. Public lectures on a variety of topics were held at Boston's Masonic Temple, and other venues.
context_section_description: 1829
  Edward Everett: "The Biography of Franklin"
  Walter Channing: "On Physical Education, Including the History of the Ancient Gymnasium;" "On the Means of Promoting and Preserving the Health of Communities, and the History and Operation of Quarantine Law;" "Aqueducts or the Means and Advantages of Supplying Cities with Water"
  Francis Lieber: "Causes of the Decline of the Turkish Empire"
  Chandler Robbins, M.D.: "Animal Mechanics"
  1830
  Alexander H. Everett: "The History of Civilization"
  Alonzo Potter: "The Theory of Morals"
  John Park: "On Sensation, the Source of Knowledge and the Means by Which Truth May Be Ascertained"
  William Sullivan: "The Constancy of Human Nature Illustrated by the Physical and Moral Character of War in the Past Ages"
  John Pickering: "Uncertainty of the Law"; "The Moral Sciences and Belles Lettres as Branches of Useful Knowledge"
  Davis: "On Natural Sciences"
  F.W.P. Greenwood: "The Nature and Power of Moral Circumstances"; "On the Uses and Abuses of Books"
  James T. Austin: "On the Modern History of Massachusetts"
  John Pierpont: "On the Value of Human Knowledge"
  William J. Loring: "An Exposition on Some of the Elementary Principles of Political Economy"
  Theodore Lyman: "Remarks on the Principal Events of the French Revolution of 1789"
  1831
  Benjamin A. Gould: "On Switzerland-the Glaciers-and Other Phenomena of the Alps, together with Passes over those Mountains"
  J. V. C. Smith: "On the Natural History and Cultivation of the Honey Bee, as a Source of Domestic Economy"
  Enoch Hale: "On Nutrition and on Digestion"
  J. Greely Stevenson: "On the Varieties of Man"
  John C. Gray: "On Taxation and Revenue"
  Lemuel Shaw: "On Laws of Property"
  Daniel Webster: "Introductory Lecture"
  Jacob Bigelow: "The Cemetery at Mount Auburn"; "Architecture"
  Francis C. Gray: "The Aborigines of America"; "Some Peculiarities of the American Form of Government"
  1832
  Chandler Robbins: Health
  Gamaliel Bradford: "Apparitions"; "The Organs of Motion"
  Franklin Dexter: "The Moral Right of Parties to Suit at Law"
  J. Greely Stevenson: "The Cause of Diversities of Complexion and Figure in Mankind"
  Charles P. Curtis: "The Benefit to the Public from the Establishment of a Court of Chancery in Massachusetts"
  Enoch Hale: "Dews and Clouds"
  John Farrar: "Natural Philosophy"
  Abraham Mason: "The Art of Wood Engraving"
  1833
  John Pickering: "The Importance of the Study of Languages"; "Language Comprehending an Account of the Written Language of Ancient Egypt, Called Hieroglyphics, as Explained by Dr. Young and M. Champollion"; "Mexican and Peruvian Languages-and Telegraphic Languages"
  Jonathan Barber: "Elocution"
  Edward Everett: "Introductory Lecture"
  George Ticknor: Shakespeare
  1834
  John Farrar: Astronomy
  Caleb Cushing:  "Man as the Agent and Object of Civilization"; "Moral and Intellectual Culture"; "Analysis of Social Organizations"; "Government"; "On Civilization and Social State of Christendom"; "The Fine Arts"
  1835
  Caleb Cushing: "Woman"; "The Discovery and Colonization of America"
  Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Michel Angelo Buonarte"; "Martin Luther"; "John Milton"; "George Fox"; "The Biography of Edmund Burke"; English Literature; "Permanent Traits of the English National Genius"; "The Age of Fable"; "Chaucer"; "Shakespeare"; "Lord Bacon"; "Ben Jonson, Herrick, Herbert, and Wotton"
  1836
  Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Ethical Writers"; "Modern Aspects of Letters"
  John Farrar: Astronomy
  Daniel Webster: "The Progress of Popular Knowledge"
  Theophilus Parsons: "The Progress and Prospects of Society"
  John C. Gray: "The Forest Trees of the United States"
  Rufus Choate: "The Literature of the Sea"
  1837
  William Sullivan
  Alexander Young: "The Pequot War of 1637"
  Charles W. Upham: "Roger Williams"; "Hugh Peters";  "Sir George Downing"; "The British Navigation Act of 1651"
  Edward Everett: "Introductory Lecture"
  William H. Gardiner: "Ancient Mexico"
  George Putnam: "The Circuit of the Waters"
  Edward T. Channing: "Modern Demonstrative Eloquence"; "Mental Habits of Writers"
  1838
  Edward T. Channing: "Richard Steele and the Periodical Essays of Queen Anne's Time"; "Literary Decisi
caption: Portrait of lecturer Alonzo Potter
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