Existing comment:
Robert Dale Owen, 1801-1877
Born Glasgow, Scotland
Reformer and social theorist Robert Dale Owen arrived in the United States in 1825 to assist his father in establishing New Harmony -- a cooperative, utopian community in Indiana. The New Harmony experiment proved to be short-lived, and Owen later allied himself with the "Free Enquirers," a liberal group that championed an early form of socialism. In 1842, Owen was elected to Congress, where one of his most important acts was introducing the bill that established the Smithsonian Institution. True to his egalitarian principles, Owen insisted that the Smithsonian take as its mission the increase of knowledge and its popular dissemination.
Unidentified daguerreotypist, c 1837 |