Robert Owen
![Portrait by [[William Henry Brooke]], 1834](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Robert_Owen_by_William_Henry_Brooke.jpg)
Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) 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'. He gained wealth in the early 1800s from a
textile mill at
New Lanark, Scotland. Having trained as a
draper in
Stamford, Lincolnshire he worked in London before relocating at age 18 to
Manchester and textile manufacturing. In 1824, he moved to America and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at
New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his
utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other
Owenite communities also failed, and in 1828 Owen returned to London, where he continued to champion the
working class, lead in developing
co-operatives and the
trade union movement, and support child labour legislation and free co-educational schools.
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