New Harmony

Town in southwestern Indiana, midwestern USA, on the Wabash River, 35 km/22 mi northwest of Evansville; population (1990) 846. It was settled in 1815 by the German Harmonist George Rapp and his followers. They sold the land in 1824 to the British social reformer Robert Owen, who renamed it New Harmony and tried, with about 1,000 settlers, to establish a cooperative community. It is now an agricultural trading centre.

Owen's attempt to run a socialist community here failed and he returned to Britain 1828. His three sons were among a group of teachers and scientists who developed New Harmony into a cultural centre. The laboratory created by David Dale Owen formed the beginning of what later became the US Geological Survey. This and many other buildings in the town have been restored.