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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2730

Boston Union of Associationists records

Overview

Records of the social reform group, the Boston Union of Associationists.

Dates

  • Creation: 1846-1850

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 box, 1 volume)

Includes: lists of members; manuscript minutes of meetings, financial account books, bylaws, and constitutions; printed invitations; and printed tickets to events. Also contains items concerning the sub-groups of the Union, including the Group of Guaranties, Group of Practical Affairs, and Group of Study & Indoctrination.

Biographical / Historical

The Boston Union of Associationists, an affiliate of the American Union of Associationists (founded May 1846), was devoted to the propagation of Fourierism, a philosophy developed by François Marie Charles Fourier (1772–1837), a French utopian socialist and philosopher. This Boston Union was organized on 30 November 1846 and operated steadily until 1851. The Union divided itself into groups, notably the Group of Practical Affairs, Group of Indoctrination, and Group of Social Culture. Some members of this organization were also participants in their sister society, the Boston Religious Union of Associationists, as well as the Brook Farm Community, which was a transcendentalist Utopian experiment in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by author, then by title.

Physical Location

b, MS

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Purchase with funds from the Friends of the Library; received: 1933 May 17. Recataloged from Soc 859.209*.

Bibliography

For detailed information on this society, see: Sterling F. Delano. The Boston Union of Associationists (1846-1851): 'Association is to me the great hope of the world.' Studies in the American Renaissance. 1996, pp.5-40.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

Title
Boston Union of Associationists. Boston Union of Associationists records, 1846-1850: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02168

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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Harvard University
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