Historical Research: New Lanark and Owenism

Primary sources are the main place where historians find their evidence: they are the documents, artifacts and other material that was made at the time you are studying, or by people who had first-hand knowledge of the event. Ideal primary sources would be created around 1800-1830 and raise interesting questions that you might be able to expand into a paper. 

• Open a blank document to take notes
• Using the suggested sites below, select at least three primary sources that relate to a common theme:
  For example, you might look for documents that demonstrate how people talked about class, gender, or working conditions in connection with New Lanark; how religious ideas intersected with Owenism; or how Owen tried to promote his plans; or how some particular aspect of life at New Lanark worked, such as the education of children
• Copy the title and (if possible) a link to each primary source into your blank document
• Write down your theme (for example, Owenism and Child Labor; or New Lanark and Women). 
   

As noted in more detail above, please select at least three primary sources from the sites below that relate to a common historical theme - :

• Writings of Robert Owen from the Robert Owen Museum
  This page (scroll to the bottom) compiles a few of Robert Owen's most significant writings.
   
• British Parliamentary Debates ("Hansard")
  This database contains British parliamentary debates -- not only related to Owenism, but to many other topics. You will likely want to narrow down by keyword and by date. For example:
  -  Search for word = Lanark (or try Robert Owen, etc.)
  - After searching, use the Date bar to navigate to the correct decades.
   
• HathiTrust​
  This is a source for scanned books, magazines and other printed sources. It is similar to Google Books except that it has a much better search interface. *Recommended.*
   
• Google Books
  This database contains a far greater quantity of material than the other two sites above. It includes millions of printed books, magazines and other sources with vast numbers of potential sources from the nineteenth century. Tips:
  • Enter keywords such as "New Lanark" IN QUOTES to search for that exact phrase; you might also try "Robert Owen" or other keywords.
  • There is a way to limit by date (Go to Tools > [Change "Any Time" to your date range] ... but the date search for some reason excludes hundreds of items that should turn up for your time period. 
  • To get around flaws in the date-based search, you can instead SORT by date, and then skip through the results until you find relevant books from the 1830s and earlier.