Existing comment:
Robert Dale Owen, 1801-1877
In 1825 reformer and social theorist Robert Dale Owen traveled to the United States 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 to introduce the bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution. True to his egalitarian principles, Owen insisted that the Smithsonian take as its mission both the increase of knowledge and its popular dissemination.
Unidentified daguerreotypist, c 1847 |