![\"Plate](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/Chirurgie_Encyclopedie1790-204x300.jpg?resize=375%2C552\")
These new intellectual developments soon spread to urban centers across Europe and to Britain\u2019s American colonies in part due to the acute curiosity of Benjamin Franklin. Quick to see the benefits of dispersing useful knowledge through every means possible, Franklin was a force behind the colonial establishment of intellectual gatherings and information exchange in the colonies. For Franklin, scientific experiment and the mechanical arts were promoted above all others.<\/p>\n From these roots, the quest to propagate information and encourage self-betterment rapidly proliferated into societies, clubs, lectures, debates, demonstrations, and affordable publications.\u00a0The application of steam power technology to the printing press along with other mechanical innovations in the 19th century enabled these initiatives to be accessible further down the social ranks. The diffusion of useful knowledge became a cultural movement as well as the namesake of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<\/p>\n A new exhibit titled Diffusion of Useful Knowledge<\/a> looks at some of the intellectual movements and social organizations that sought to define and promote \u201cuseful knowledge\u201d spanning the late 18th century through the middle of the 19th century.\u00a0 While many of the methods used to convey knowledge, such as encyclopedias, lectures, and a variety of educational publications, are still widely in use today, the question of \u201cwhat\u201d makes the knowledge worth pursuing continues to evolve.<\/p>\n The exhibit is viewable through December 2014 in Special Collections and Archives in the John T. Richardson Library<\/a>, Room 314. A digital version of a Diffusion of Useful Knowledge<\/a> is also available from the DePaul University Library’s Exhibits<\/a> page.<\/p>\n For additional information, contact Special Collections and Archives at archives@depaul.edu<\/a> or stop by our department in the John T. Richardson Library<\/a>, Room 314.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What constitutes useful knowledge?\u00a0 Still asked by educational institutions and individuals aspiring to new endeavors, the question is both elusive and definitive depending upon how broadly philosophical or concretely specific the inquiry. The \u201cuseful\u201d component of the query is further complicated by the circumstantial connection of knowledge to social, political, or economic environments and the <\/p>\n![\"Page](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/Icebergs_PhenomenaNature1846-234x300.jpg?resize=375%2C481\")