New Lanark School, 1820s


Figure 1.--This is a schoolroom at New Lanark in Robert Owen's time. The children dancing are both boys and girls. It certainly looks to be a well equipped school. The academic lessons were enriched with dancing lessons as seen here. I'm not sure what kind of dance was taught, but note the children are grouped rather than square dancing which I assume would be Scottis country dancing. One source says that the children wore uniforms which were dresses in Scottish plaid and kilts. The children here he children here are wearing white tunics which appears to hvebeen the outfit worn at school.

This is a schoolroom at New Lanark in Robert Owen's time. The children dancing are both boys and girls. It certainly looks to be a well equipped school. The academic lessons were enriched with dancing lessons as seen here. I'm not sure what kind of dance was taught, but note the children are grouped rather than square dancing which I assume would be Scottis country dancing. One source says that the children wore uniforms which were dresses in Scottish plaid and kilts. The children here he children here are wearing white tunics which appears to hvebeen the outfit worn at school.

New Lanark

Observing the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the factory system on people there were several different reform movements which developed. Some of these reforms took a political approach. Another was the creatian of utopian societies. One of the utopian communities develooed in Scotland. New Lanark was created when two Glasgow financiers (David Dale and Richard Arkwright) purchased land on the River Clyde. It was at this location that they founded their mill and a new village--New Lanark (1785). Dale as was not unsual at the time, relied heavily on children, especially orphan children who were very inexpensive to obtain. An estimated 800 of his 1,100 employees were children. Unlike many such employers, he provided 2 hours of education. (This was before free public education existed, but it was beginning to develop in Scotland.) He also built reasobable housing for his employees. A Welshman Robert Owen married Dale's daughter Caroline (1799). Owen and Quaker partners thus took control of New Lanark. Owen was an idealist inspired by the Enlightenment. He was particularly taken with the idea of individual self-improvement and education. Owen believed that the education of individuals would benefit the larger soiciety. Owen decided to administer New Lanark as a social experiment. Owen sought to show the social benefits that resulted when employees were treated fairly and he sought to demostrate that employers could still make profirs. Owen cut back on working hours and upgraded worker housing. He established a creche (day care) for working mothers. He also provided workers free medical care as well as sick pay--virtually unheard of at the time. He used mill profits to build a village school. He even saw recreation as important and organized dances and socials. He offered self improvement through adult education evening classes. Owen founded the Institute for the Formation of Character (1816). Owen sold his share of New Lanark to Quaker partners (1824). Owen is especially well known to Americans. He brought his family to America and founded a utopian community there--New Harmony, Indiana. Owen eventually returned to Britain, but his son Robert Dale Owen stayed behind at New Harmony. He was a teacher and an important spokesman for the abolition of slavery. His father persued the campaign for industrial and social reform after his return to Britain until he died (1858). Owen's experiment at Lanark had an important but difficult to quantify impact on social policy in Britain and the British labour movement. It also influenced the co-operative movement. Social legislation, the trade union movement , garden cities, as well as education were also impacted.

New Lanarck School Uniform

Uniforms were not common at schools in the early 19th century, with the exception of charilty schools like the hospital schools in England. I know of no Scottish schools at the time that had uniforms. Owen was, however, a believer in teaching children to conform to societal values. Thus the New Lanark school had uniforms. One observer reports, "Conformity in the children was further reinforced by a 'beautiful dress of tartan cloth, fashioned in its make after the form of a Roman toga'. However, like the kilt and plaid worn by older boys this was thought by some of Robert Owen's partners to encourage sexual promiscuity. According to Captain Donald Macdonald of the Royal Engineers, who like the laird, Archibald Hamilton of Dalzell, had become a convert to the New System and who accompanied Robert Owen on the visit of inspection to Harmonie in 1824-25, the New Lanark dresses and plaids were part of the baggage. Owen showed them to fellow passengers and apparently had them copied in New York to be displayed there and in Washington along with his plans and models of the Village Scheme. The dress code for the new communities was another subject about which Robert Owen said little about unless pressed to do so." [Donnachie] We have, however several questions about the uniform described.

Illustrator

We do not know the name of the illustrator who did this drawing.

Chronology

This print may be dated, but we do not know at this time if it is dated. We would guess at this time thatit was done in the 1820s. Note that all of the men are wearing long trousers. None are wearing kneebreeches. We suspect that some men were still wearing knee breeches in the 1810s. We also think it was done during the time that Robert Owen was still at New Lanark and by the 1830s he was in America. Also the Scottish revival was not as pronounced in the 1810s as the 1820s. Another factor is that although soyrces vary somewhat, the building here apparently was not finished until about 1816.

Location

The print appears to be the second floor of the New Lanarck school. A contemprary account describes "The other and smaller apartment on the second floor has the walls hung round with representations of the most striking zoological and mineralogical specimens, including quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, shells, minerals etc."

Scottish Revival

The outfits the children are wearing show the influence of the Scottish Revival. They are white tunics with tartan trim. Also notice some of the children are wearing tratan plaids, the tartan material haning vertically down from the shoulders. Although not seen here, the children also wore garments even more strongly identified with the Scottish revival--tartan dresses and kilts. The dance may also be related to the Scottish Revival. One of the important factors in the Scottish revival was the performance of the Scottish brigades in the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). The print here would have been done a few years later.

Dancing

Owen was a strong believer in the benefits of dance. Visitors to New Lanark constantly commented on the children learning dances and the proficency of even younger children. We do not have details on what dances they were taught. Available information suggests that they were taught many different European dances. Surely Scottish country dancing was part of the program. The children here are clearly doing a set dance, perhaps Scottish country dancing. Scottish country dancing is the modern form of the "country dancing" that was wide spread in both England and Scotland in the 18th century. It generally involves groups of about 6 to 10 people of mixed gender usually forming a "set". This form of dance was important in the development of American Western square dancing.

Demonstration

Robert Owen reportedly enjoyed hosting visitors and demonstrating just what he was accomplishing at New Lanark. The community after all was a demonstration project for his social and educational ideas. The print here appears to be a depiction of a group of visitors watching a dancing lesson. We do not know if there are any dignitaries of special note among the visitors. Nor do we know if anything special was prepared for them.






HBC




Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main New Lanark education page]
[Return to the Main individual Scottish school page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Saellite sites] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Kilts] [Kilt suits] [Scottish kilts] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance] [Pipeband]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Tunics] [Greek kilts]



Created: 4:48 AM 6/22/2004
Last updated: 6:16 PM 6/22/2004