The exhibition did not discuss how communalism was taught or that the objects were shared. In addition to having communal toys, the toys themselves underwent intense scrutiny to determine whether they encouraged inappropriate behaviors. Within the Children’s House, the community’s youth shared toys in common and were discouraged from claiming favorites as their own. ![]() Though it was interesting to see the clothing and toys used by the children, their role was more decoration than elucidation. These panels explain the main ideas behind the exhibition. Two of the “Mothers & Children” interpretive panels. Interpretive panels explain the structure of communal child-rearing succinctly and Jessup explained that in the usual tour the guide uses the space to explain stirpiculture. The exhibition “Mothers & Children in the Oneida Community,” held appropriately where the Children’s Department once stood, relies primarily on photographs and quotes from those who grew up at Oneida. Molly Jessup, the museum’s Curator of Education, tailored her tour to discuss the exhibitions from a museological perspective. As fascinating as it may be to read about the Community’s unusual approach to relationships, the topics of sexuality and the ‘side effects’ of sexuality can be tricky to translate with physical objects to a mixed audience.īeing able to ‘step behind the stanchions” is one of best perks of traveling with Winterthur. The goal was to create genetically and morally “perfected” children. Between 18, the Perfectionists began an experiment in “stirpiculture.” This brand of positive eugenics led to the planned conception and birth of fifty-eight selectively-bred children or “stirpicults.” Unlike the eugenics practices of forced sterilizations and abortions aimed at weeding out bad genes, stirpiculture encouraged breeding between people with desirable traits. Main display of objects in the “Mothers & Children” exhibitionĭespite their reputation for so-called “free love,” allegedly few unplanned children were born. Biological parents and grandparents lived separate from their offspring to keep them from developing exclusive, selfish attachments. By extension, all adult were ‘parents’ to each child. Under this new arrangement, each man ‘married’ every woman and vice versa. To achieve this egalitarian social structure, Oneida Community members needed to overhaul traditional familial relationships. Noyes’ followers eschewed all selfishness, including exclusive relationships of all forms. The Oneida Community practice of “complex marriage” stemmed from founder John Humphrey Noyes’ interpretation of Christianity known as Perfectionism. As the mother of a little one myself, I was particularly interested in the childhood experience in this unconventional setting and how it was interpreted in the museum.Ī photograph of community members after a bee, c. Besides our regular coursework, the class visited the Oneida Mansion House Museum on our tour of the utopian communities of Upstate New York. ![]() This fall, Winterthur’s “Cities on a Hill: Material Culture in America’s Communal Utopias” class delved deeper into the history of the nineteenth-century intentional community. When most people talk about Oneida, they mention two things: the company made their mother’s silverware and the community practiced “free love.” Anything beyond that, particularly the connection between the two, is a mystery. This class examined the history and material culture of intentional communities throughout American history using Winterthur’s collections as well as field studies. ProcSet>/Subtype/Form/Type/XObject>stream _)/RD/Rect/Subj(Typewritten Text)/Subtype/FreeText/T(proyster)/Type/Annot> Published in Hidden Stories/Human Lives: Proceedings of the Textile Society of America 17th Biennial Symposium,
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