Robert Owen, Welsh manufacturer turned reformer and influential early 19th-century advocate of utopian socialism. His New Lanark mills became a place of pilgrimage for political leaders, social reformers, and royalty.

Although Owen’s period of ownership lasted only 10 years longer than that of his father-in-law, David Dale, Owen instituted a wide range of workplace, social, and educational reforms that led to the idea of New Lanark as an ‘ideal’ community and of Owen himself as a Socialist.

Robert Owen (/ ˈoʊɪn /; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement.

Owen wrote and made speeches on many things throughout his life, but is arguably most famous for what he said in his ‘Address to the Inhabitants of New Lanark’ which he delivered on New Year’s Day 1816.

We’re going to look at what Robert Owen achieved at New Lanark, what was revolutionary about his experiment and what motivated him. Owen himself came from relatively humble beginnings. He was the son of a Welsh shopkeeper.

Robert Owen was a prominent English socialist-utopian who attempted to put his ideas into practice. He first implemented his vision in his own spinning factory in New Lanark, Scotland, and later in experimental communist colonies in the United States and Great Britain.

New Lanark was a cotton mill founded 1785 by David Dale, a Glasgow banker and entrepreneur, and Richard Arkwright, the inventor and pioneer of industrial cotton spinning. It later became famous for the reforms of its owner Robert Owen.

Robert Owen It was under the enlightened management of Robert Owen that New Lanark became famous Robert and Caroline set up home in New Lanark and went on to have seven children.

Robert Owen of New Lanark. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1953. A brief and general but useful introduction. Donnachie, Ian. Robert Owen: Owen of New Lanark and New Harmony. East Linton, Scotland: Tuckwell, 2000. Reprint. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2005. Comprehensive biography of Owen, describing his work as a factory owner and social reformer.

New Lanark – the institute is towards the back of picture, and has a small tower. This famous address on the significance of education for social change was delivered by Robert Owen on the opening of the Institute for the Formation of Character on January 1, 1816.