Abstract New Harmony, Indiana, has an important place in the history of geology for North America. David Dale Owen, son of Robert Owen, who had attempted to establish a communal society in New Harmony, developed an impressive geological enterprise there. D.D. Owen's work included geological training at his New Harmony laboratories and the first geological mapping expeditions for many states and districts in the expanding United States. He served as the first state geologist for Indiana, a position also held by his brother, Richard. Several scientific notables, including William Maclure, Charles Lyell, Thomas Say, and others visited and studied natural history while based in New Harmony. The famous "Boatload of Knowledge" brought several artists, teachers, scientists, and other intellectuals to their new home in New Harmony, Indiana. Our trip to some of the original sites in this important town, including D.D. Owen's geological laboratories and Maclure's Working Men's Institute, will take us through the characteristic southwestern Indiana landscape of glacial-meltwater-lake plains, loess mantled bedrock uplands, and the Ohio and Wabash River valleys.

Abstract This field trip features the visits and work of Maximilian, Prince of Wied; David Dale Owen; Charles Alexandre Lesueur; and other natural scientists who visited or lived in New Harmony, Indiana, USA. We also outline the history of this remarkable town and note items of geological and geographical interest seen in and around New Harmony, Indiana, including the Wabash River, Native American mounds, a garden-style cemetery containing the graves of prominent scientists, and historic stone structures.

ABSTRACT The historic town of New Harmony is located along the Wabash River in Posey County, Indiana, and served as a focal point for natural scientists, especially geologists, in the early nineteenth century. Notable geologists that lived and worked in New Harmony during this time include Edward Travers Cox, William Maclure, Fielding Bradford Meek, Joseph Granville Norwood, David Dale Owen, Richard Dale Owen, Benjamin Franklin Shumard, Gerard Troost, and Amos Henry Worthen. Other natural scientists who worked in New Harmony include Charles Alexandre Lesueur and Thomas Say, and the town was also visited by James Hall, Leo Lesquereux, Sir Charles Lyell, and Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prince of Wied. The purpose of this field-trip guide is to highlight the scientific and geologic enterprise that operated in nineteenth-century New Harmony, Indiana. There will be a tour of historic buildings including laboratories used by David Dale Owen, such as the Rapp-Owen Granary and his fourth laboratory, which was constructed in 1859. Furthermore, field-trip participants will visit a new geology exhibit at the Working Men’s Institute, an organization established by William Maclure in 1838. The field excursion will also visit historically significant localities, including Mississippian and Pennsylvanian exposures, the type section of the West Franklin Limestone, and a Pennsylvanian paleobotanical site that yielded extensive collections of plant fossils in the mid-nineteenth century. Finally, this field trip will provide an opportunity to discuss the importance of art to geological studies in the early nineteenth century. Specifically, hand-colored geologic maps, cross sections, and renderings of fossils were included with many of the scientific reports of historic New Harmony, and are reflected by the superb artwork of Charles Alexandre Lesueur, David Dale Owen, and Thomas Say. Access to view their original scientific artwork is possible only through special arrangement with the Working Men’s Institute.