New Harmony 1832

Karl Bodmer made this image of New Harmony, Indiana, sometime in the 19th century using a technique of engraving, likely after a sketch done on location. This picturesque image shows a town on the edge of the American frontier. But it was not a typical settlement, it was conceived as a utopian community. Robert Owen, a Welsh factory owner and social reformer, purchased the town in 1825, hoping to create a new society based on socialist ideals. This view of the town shows tidy buildings and cultivated fields, promising the social harmony Owen hoped to establish. Examining Bodmer's image, one can ask whether it is an accurate representation of the town or a visual idealization shaped by Owen's socialist vision. Images like this can be interpreted using documents from the time, such as letters or journals from people who lived there, as well as histories of communal experiments in nineteenth-century America. Art gives meaning to social context.