BBC - A History of the World - Object : Charles Knight Brooch

Contributed by Windsor and Royal Borough Museum

Victorian Mourning Brooch for Charles Knight, junior

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Brooch with a lock of hair from Charles Knight, editor of the Penny Magazine, which brought knowledge to the massesThe donor of the brooch, contacting the collection in 2008, always felt that it 'never really belonged to me', and should be returned to Windsor where Charles Knight was born, worked and lived. The cavity is inscribed: To Eleanor Henly, the attentive nurse of Charles Knight during his last illness - From his eldest Grandson William Charles Knight Clowes, 9th March 1873. Charles Knight junior (1791-1873) together with his father, Charles Knight Senior, founded the Windsor and Eton Express. Charles Knight became editor and publisher for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, publishers of the Penny Magazine and the Penny Cyclopedia, enabling the Victorian working classes to have access to high quality articles and illustrations. Charles Knight was the first to suggest a scheme for free public libraries for all and he died in 1873 having achieved his ambition to bring good literature within the reach of all.

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