Robert Owen Museum

21/07/2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002z3dl This BBC Radio Wales Podcast gives a brief summary of Robert Owen of Newtown Montgomeryshire Mid Wales dream of a utopian society when he spent 125,000 dollars to purchase a community called Harmony and 20,000 acres of land in 1825. The History of Wales People's Collection Wales Llyfrgelloedd Y Drenewydd a Llanidloes / Newtown and Llanidloes Newtown Local History Group Historic New Harmony National Geographic History StoriPowys

How a Welshman bought a small American frontier town to create a socialist utopia.

08/07/2026

Did you know Robert Owen's sons connections to the

18/06/2026

12/06/2026

What links co-operator George Jacob Holyoake, playwright John Osborne and actor Richard Burton?
Find out in the latest blog post by from the The Co-operative Heritage Trust Co-op Archive volunteers. See the link in the bio or go to our website.

This weekend it is the Co-operatives UK Congress in Birmingham. Holyoake played a significant role in many of the early Co-op Congresses and was President for the first day of the 1887 Co-operative Congress.

14/05/2026

Today 255 years ago Robert Owen was born in Newtown Y Drenewydd Powys. A young drapers apprentice that pioneered infant education, social reforms and the co-operative movement. The eternal optimist! Co-Operative Heritage Trust Co-operative News Historic New Harmony People's Collection Wales Nation.Cymru New Lanark World Heritage Site

14/04/2026

Unfortunately the museum will be closed on Wednesday 15/04/2026 and Wednesday 22/04/2026 due to staff training. Apologies for the inconvenience.

10/04/2026

In the winter of 1825–1826, the president, librarian, and several members of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences headed west from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Academy President William Maclure, “father of American geology,” had gathered them all aboard the keelboat Philantropist [they used the French spelling]: scientists, artists, musicians, and educators, some bringing along their students, and all were eager to settle in Robert Owen’s New Harmony community on the Indiana frontier.

📖 This Saturday in New Harmony!

The Owen-Maclure 200 Monthly Lecture takes place April 11 at 2 PM (CDT) at the New Harmony Working Men's Institute.

Learn how William Maclure’s educational ideas shaped American learning through a lecture by Dr. Gerald Gutek, one of the nation’s leading historians of education.

🎟️ Free admission
📍 407 Tavern Street, New Harmony

We look forward to seeing you there!

11/02/2026

New Lanark World Heritage destination near Glasgow shares Robert Owen Utopian Legacy.

12/01/2026

Robert Owen a humble drapers apprentice from Newtown Powys Mid Wales Legacy lives on in New Lanark World Heritage Site in Scotland and Historic New Harmony USA. Wales Co-Operative Heritage Trust People's Collection Wales The History of Wales

Community Talks!

Join us at Lanark Library on Thursday 29th of January at 2pm for a talk on the People of New Lanark.

From familiar figures like David Dale and Robert Owen to the lesser-known paupers, doctors, soldiers and Millworkers who called New Lanark their home, join us at Lanark Library to learn about the fascinating People of New Lanark!

📍Where - Lanark Library
🗓 When - Thursday 29th of January
🎫Tickets - Free!

Contact Lanark Library on 01555 661144 to book your place!

22/11/2025

We're excited to help announce the launch of the Owen-Maclure 200 website and social media accounts!

The Owen-Maclure 200 is a two-year bicentennial project exploring New Harmony's 1825-1827 utopian experiment.

Two hundred years ago, Robert Owen and William Maclure transformed New Harmony into a laboratory for social reform, gathering scientists, educators, artists, and reformers to reimagine society itself. The experiment lasted just two years, but the questions it raised about education, equality, and community continue to resonate today.

The Owen-Maclure 200 project will share stories, primary sources, educational resources, and public programming that examine this pivotal moment in American history. This experiment was not a simple success or failure, but a complex chapter that still has much to teach us.

Follow Owen-Maclure 200 for updates and visit www.owenmaclure200.com to explore the full digital experience.

Join us as we dig into 200 years of questions from a 2-year experiment!