Owen, Robert 1771-1858
Archival location guide — where this economist’s surviving papers are held, their notable correspondents, and key published sources.
Born 1771 · died 1858
Robert Owen was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, sought a more collective approach to child-rearing, and 'believed in lifelong education, establishing an Institute for the Formation of Character and School for Children that focused less on job skills than on becoming a better person'.
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Correspondence, consisting of nearly 3000 items, mainly letters to Owen, 1821-1858, but including a few drafts and copies of out-letters and other documents.
Owen papers, Co-operative Union Ltd, Manchester.
A small group of letters (about ten) to Owen, 1830-1858, and about 70 typescript copies of letters and parts of letters, 1822-1851.
National Library of Wales (NLW), MSS. 14352, 18894.
Two letters, a scrapbook containing manuscript material and a draft of the Report to the County of Lanark, c. 1818-1820.
London UL, A.L.s 146 and 266, MSS. 578 and 692.
His diary, 1813-1822, and business records of his period at New Lanark.
Gourock Ropeworks Co. papers, National Register of Archives (NRA) 10832.
Correspondence, financial and other records of Owen and the New Harmony Community, 1824-1829, including many Owen family papers.
Workingmen’s Institute, New Harmony, Indiana.
Minute book of the Central Board of the Association of All Classes of All Nations, 1838-1840. Minute book of the Directors of the National Community Friendly Society, 1838-1843. Minute book of the Directors of the Rational Society, 1843-1845.
International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
Correspondents
THOMAS ALLSOP, c. 150 letters, 1832-1858. BL Add. MS. 46344.
JEREMY BENTHAM, nine letters, 1818-1823.
BL Add. MS. 33545.
HENRY PETER BROUGHAM, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, 40 letters, 1833-1858. Brougham papers, University College London (UCL)
JAMES M. DORSEY, four letters, 1827-1828.
Dorsey-Owen papers, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.
PHILIPP EMANUEL VON FELLENBERG, 20 letters (from Owen and his sons), 1818-1835.
Fellenberg MSS., Burgerbibliothek, Berne.
ARCHIBALD JAMES HAMILTON, one letter, 1828.
Hamilton papers, Motherwell Public Library.
ROBERT BANKS JENKINSON, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, nine items, 1818-1820.
BL Add. MSS. 38271-38574.
SAMUEL OLDKNOW, two letters, 1793. NLW, MS. 4956.
SIR ROBERT PEEL, six items, 1822-1846.
BL Add. MSS. 40349-40588.
SIR ROBERT JOHN WILMOT-HORTON, two letters, 1831. Catton collection, Derby Borough Library.
Printed Material
J. M. ELLIOTT, ‘The Owen Family Papers’, Indiana Magazine of History, LX 4 (1964).
J. F.C. HARRISON, Robert Owen and the Owenites ( London, 1969).
New Palgrave ; ODNB; Boase II 1291; ESS XI 517; IESS XI 351.
Portraits: BL(P); NPG; SNPG; Courtauld Institute.