Owen Takes the Idea West
Ross McDowell / Tartan Compass
Robert Owen tried to carry ideas tested beside the Clyde into a much more ambitious experiment in the United States.
Owen took over the management of New Lanark at the beginning of the nineteenth century and used the mill village to develop ideas about education, working conditions and community life. By the 1820s he wanted to push those ideas further and tried to build a new community around them in America. The later experiment grew directly from work he had already begun here.
New Lanark makes most sense as a complete village, with work, housing and education arranged closely together. The school and Institute give physical form to ideas that Owen would later try to carry much further.
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