New Harmony, Indiana in the context of Duchy of Württemberg

The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785. Due to religious persecution by the Lutheran Church and the government in Württemberg, the group moved to the United States, where representatives purchased land in Butler County, Pennsylvania. On February 15, 1805, the group of approximately 400 formally organized the Harmony Society at today's Harmony, Pennsylvania, settling on the land and placing all their goods in common.

Under its founder and spiritual leader, Johann Georg Rapp (1757–1847); Frederick (Reichert) Rapp (1775–1834), his adopted son who managed its business affairs; and their associates, the Society existed for one hundred years, roughly from 1805 until 1905. Members were known as Harmonists, Harmonites, or Rappites. The Society is best known for its worldly successes, most notably the establishment of three model communities, the first at Harmony, Pennsylvania; the second, also called Harmony, in the Indiana Territory, now New Harmony, Indiana; and the third and final town at Economy, now Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Robert Owen (/ˈoʊɪn/; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, sought a more collective approach to child-rearing, and 'believed in lifelong education, establishing an Institute for the Formation of Character and School for Children that focused less on job skills than on becoming a better person'.

Having trained as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire Owen worked in London before relocating at age 18 to Manchester and textile manufacturing. He gained wealth in the early 1800s from a textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland. In 1824, he moved to America and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other Owenite communities also failed, and in 1828 Owen returned to London, where he continued to champion the working class, lead in developing co-operatives and the trade union movement, and support child labour legislation and free co-educational schools.

Josiah Warren (/ˈwɒrən/; June 26, 1798 – April 14, 1874) was an American social reformer, inventor, musician, businessman, and philosopher.

He is regarded as the first American philosophical anarchist; he took an active part in Robert Owen's experimental community at New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825–1826. Later, Warren rejected Owenism, giving birth to the Time Store Cooperative Movement (historically known as "Equity Movement"). His ideas were partly implemented through the establishment of the Cincinnati Time Store, followed by the founding of the Utopian Community of Modern Times. In his 1863 work titled True Civilization, Warren outlines his philosophy founded on the "sovereignty of every individual." In his subsequent development, Practical Applications of the Elementary Principles of True Civilization (1873), he proposes a decentralized hexagonal ideal city, drawing inspiration from J. Madison Allen of Ancora design. The city was supposed to be the antithesis of communism, being owned by cellular units while promoting equitable distribution and a system of time chits.