University of Oklahoma

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE ―TRICKS UPON TRAVELLERS‖: ROBERT OWEN, NEW LANARK, AND THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF CHARACTER, 1800-1826 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By CORNELIA C. LAMBERT Norman, Oklahoma 2010 ―TRICKS UPON TRAVELLERS‖: ROBERT OWEN, NEW LANARK, AND THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF CHARACTER, 1800-1826 A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY Dr. Katherine Pandora, Chair Dr. Kathleen Crowther Dr. Piers Hale Dr. Suzanne Moon Dr. Zev Trachtenberg Dr. Stephen Weldon © Copyright by CORNELIA C. LAMBERT 2010 All Rights Reserved. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself. – Mary Shelley This project would not have been possible without generous support from the University of Oklahoma Alumni Association, who sponsored five years'-worth of tuition, travel for conferences, and research during my time at the University of Oklahoma. I would also like to thank Richard Bickle, secretary of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies, and the Lothian, Borders and Angus Co-operative Society for their kind sponsorship of my travels to New Lanark in September 2008. Gillian Lonergan and Karyn Stuckey at Co-operative College Archive in Manchester provided an invaluable introduction to both archival work and Owen studies. Eva Oledzka at the Senate House Library of the University of London went beyond the call of duty in mailing me information the library failed to give to me during my visit. I would also like to thank the lovely J. Hatton Davison at the Robert Owen Museum in Newtown, Claire Daniel at Glasgow University Archive Services, Iain D. Maciver at the Lindsay Institute in Lanark, Gemma Bates at the North Lanarkshire Archives in Cumbernauld, and the duty archivists at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Jane Anderson at Blair Atholl was particularly fun to talk to. Veronica Denholm and Olive Geddes at National Library of Scotland epitomized the best of librarianship when they directed me to resources I would never have found using the catalogue. Ian Donnachie and Lorna Davidson took time to introduce me to the ways of Owen scholarship; sincere thanks as well goes to Jim Arnold for having the foresight to take New Lanark into the future. iv Several friends, many of whom are also academics, have been excellent sounding boards. Holly Schmidt and Natalie Broadnax indulged my questions about dance and Esther Mijers my questions about Scottish history. Lyle Barbato, Logan Cox, Matt Deeg, Amy Rodgers, Callie Doherty, and Kassy Nicholson provided technical assistance, and Katherine Hunter helped with translations from Italian. Mary Jane Anderson-Wiley, Diane Bonham, Natalie Broadnax, Peggy Geren, Amanda M. Miller, Katherine Holland, F. Cantine Jones, M. J. Jones, Tomasz Kuder, Steven Livesey, Christine Manganaro, Angela Pace, Sharrona Pearl, Sylwester Ratowt, Lynnette Regouby, Amy Rodgers, and Angelina Seha provided invaluable personal support. Kate Sheppard provided daily, unerring encouragement and camaraderie, as well as challenges to my points of view; and Melissa Rickman helped me maintain perspective on this project as well as life in general. My committee was an incredible resource. Each committee member has taken the time to make me a careful scholar—especially Stephen Weldon, Piers Hale, and Suzanne Moon. I am particularly indebted to Zev Trachtenberg for taking seriously my interest in Rousseau and spending the time to hike through several versions of my ideas with me, even if my work in its final incarnation bears little resemblance to these early ideas. I would like to thank especially Kathleen Crowther for her helping me to develop creative approaches to materials during my time at OU. Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein has been a natural companion to this work, not only because of the obvious chronological and philosophical connections between the Doctor‘s recreation of man and Owen‘s recreation of society but also because of its theme on the trials of invention. I am indebted to Katherine Pandora for her willingness to shepherd my research process through its most chaotic and even monstrous moments. I have been very lucky to find v someone who understands my style of invention which, as Shelley describes ―consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject.‖ Dr. Pandora challenged me, as she does all her students, to dispute the received narrative; I can only hope that my efforts achieve this worthy goal. Finally: Robert Owen‘s argument for the sources of individual character has spurred reflection on the springs of my own. I am indebted to those who have contributed, through the mysterious alchemy of nature and nurture, to make mine what it is: Fred Lambert, Jr., Ruby Blackburn Lambert, Kathleen Abernathy Campbell, F. Cantine Jones, and Leslie Lambert-Jones. Although Mr. Owen would disagree, any remaining shortcomings are—as are errors in my academic work—my own. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................ viii Abstract .................................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 I. Robert Owen and the ―Science of Circumstances‖ ........................................................33 II. Not ―Born to Blush Unseen‖: New Lanark and the Romantic Witness .......................91 III. Democratizing the Quadrille: Character Pedagogy in Action ...................................140 IV. ―Mr. Owen‘s Race‖: The Arts and Sciences of Familial Reform .............................210 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................240 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................259 vii LIST OF FIGURES Mary Ann Knight, Mr. Owen of New Lanark, c. 1799 ......................................................4 Gilbert Bayes, Robert Owen, 1956 ......................................................................................7 Plaque, Newtown, Wales .....................................................................................................7 Replica, Bayes Sculpture of Robert Owen, Manchester ......................................................8 Robert Owen Memorial, Kensal Green Cemetery, London ................................................9 Robert Owen‘s Grave, Newtown, Wales ...........................................................................10 William Hogarth, Gin Lane, 1751 .....................................................................................83 Anonymous, Corra Linn, c 1832 .......................................................................................95 M. Egerton and G. Hunt, ―Washerwomen, Calton Hill, Edinburgh,‖ 1825 ....................104 M. Egerton and G. Hunt, ―Mr. Owen‘s Institution, New Lanark,‖ 1825 ........................142 The Lancastrian Classroom: The Borough Road School .................................................151 The Lancastrian Classroom, Monitors and Charges ........................................................151 Bodily Discipline of the Lancastrian Classroom .............................................................165 The Institute for the Formation of Character Today ........................................................167 New Lanark Visitors Today .............................................................................................244 The Silent Monitor as Toy ...............................................................................................258 viii ABSTRACT When he assumed management of the cotton manufactory at New Lanark, Scotland in 1800, Robert Owen (1771-1858) faced a population made up of employees of ―ill-formed‖ character. Over the course of the next twenty-six years, however, New Lanark became a showcase of successful ―pauper management‖ and through what he purported to be a ―New View‖ of human character, Owen effectively eradicated lying, cheating, and disorderly and drunken conduct. New Lanark became a tourist destination not only because of its proximity to Cora Linn and other local natural features, but because of the way Owen crafted scientific spectacle to appeal to those in search of sensational activities. At the Institute for the Formation of Character, Owen developed a unique, performance-based curriculum which imparted lessons of cooperative and national behaviors while appealing to culture-conscious visitors. Owen also began, though did not bring to fruition, plans to manipulate the physical surroundings which dictated family structures in the village. In sum, a visit to New Lanark in the years under consideration provided travelers with a variety of experiences which Owen believed would convince them of the efficacy of his claims. ix x INTRODUCTION A. A Life and Its Memorialization Robert Owen was born in a small town in rural Wales in 1771. At the age of ten, he left the home of his

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