The Workingman’s Institute in New Harmony, Indiana

The Workingman’s Institute in New Harmony, Indiana

small city logoSmall-town Nostalgia        Updated 28 March 2001      URL is /harmony/harmony3.html

The Workingmen’s Institute in New Harmony, Indiana

(I just poured my heart into this site about my first trip to New Harmony. I am not an official representative of anything. Sandra Weinhardt, [email protected])
This building could take a day in itself. A charming surprise, loaded with history and artifacts. You can’t even consider yourself educated in Indiana history until you have experienced the Workingmen’s Institute and the history of utopias in New Harmony, Indiana. I love this place!

signInstituteFather Rapp selling townFather Rapp sells the town to Robert Owen.
Murphy plaqueDr. Edward Murphyhis wife, Sophia
Dr. Edward Murphy and his wife, Sophia, donated this building to the town, and a great deal of its contents. What a wonderful legacy!
firehorse    This was once the beloved firehorse for New Harmony. Come in and learn all the stories that go with the uncanny museum exhibits.

sign on engine
fire engine    What the horse pulled, Old Pat Lyon.

scale model train    Railroad enthusiasts will find this museum well worth stopping at.
old, old trunk    This trunk arrived on the boat with the Owens. Centennial    The 1914 Centennial of New Harmony.

William McCluremusselsWilliam McClure was the naturalist who put Indiana on the Natural History map. He was world-famous. These mussel shells are a small part of that one collection. In your other reading, you will see that William McClure was awfully important in the story of New Harmony.

If you enjoy learning about William McClure, you might want to read about pharmacist Charles Deam of Bluffton, Indiana, the first Indiana state forester and a self-taught botanist par excellence. He collected specimens from every township in Indiana. One book about him is available to read on-line. Indiana University has his papers, at IU Library, Deam archives
Here’s a review of Plain Ol’ Charlie Deam a book by Robert C. Kriebel, Purdue University Press, 1987.
Two of Deam’s seminal botany books are available on-line.

Owen list    Educators will be interested in the Owen theories of childhood education. The children lived in dormitories and learned by doing useful things.

There are four divisions of this website,

  1. Miscellaneous New Harmony web links are on page 1, and Corey too.
  2. Buildings
  3. Workingman’s Institute. You are here.
  4. Nature loves New Harmony

You may also enjoy my site for the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana, an early home of Gene Stratton-Porter.

You are encouraged to bookmark this page. Please!

Image Map

countersince the last counter crash

Site wide, since 3-6-96:
This counter courtesty of Digits

Email editor Sandra Weinhardt at [email protected]