Historic New Harmony

Technically, these photos were taken on a self-​guided tour throughout the village of New Harmony. On this cold autumn day, guided tours were not available. On this day, after leaf fall, the preserved 19^th century buildings show prominently with the sky emanating a steely greyness.

This is a pretty remarkable place, New Harmony. It’s home of two failed Utopian societies. For $ 10 bucks a pop you get a tour of the village. The guide says it used to be better and you saw more but now things have started to fall apart since it was put under university control.
It starts at the Antheneum. It’s another Richard Meier, of Getty fame, lego «masterpiece.» Personally I hate his buildings and this is no exception. They splurged to try to make this place currently relevant. I think it’s a bit of failure and Meier’s spaces are not very functional. But really who cares about the building. How many places had one Utopian society, much less two.
Still I had a great time. You don’t get to see a lot of what you’d want to be able to investigate, but they do a good job describing the first and most interesting group to arrive here, the Harmonie Society, who believed that the second coming was imminent so they stopped mating to keep their purity. Obviously this group wasn’t meant to last. But they were detailed craftsman. After that was a group that tried to create a Utopian society based on education with the Owen-​Maclure community.
The real gem is the Maximilian-​Bodemer Exhibit, which is the sole reason it gets 5 stars. A group that attempted to retrace the first 2/​3rds of the Louis and Clark expedition stopped here while the wealthy leader, Maximilian, was recovering from illness. Along with them was the prolific artist, Bodemer, who revealed New Harmony of the time and went onto provide a massive detailing of the West during the early 1800’s. New Harmony has the majority of the prints. Who knew such a collection existed in such a small unknown of museum had such a special collection. And you can’t get there without going on the tour.