Comparative Utopias

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The land at Fruitlands has hosted many diverse populations, many of which looked to create a utopian existence. Even the Native Americans were viewed by Clara Endicott Sears, Fruitlands Founder, as enjoying a utopia of their own prior to first contact with European settlers' wants, guns and diseases. In Comparative Utopias, students 9th grade and up learn what these groups were looking for: self-sustaining farming, fishing, and hunting; a "new Eden"; "Hands to Work, Hearts to God," and "God's Manifest Majesty" informed the Native, Transcendentalist, Shaker and Hudson River artists' lives.

Comparative Utopias offers a choice of programs. Transcendental versus Shaker presents the Utopias of Bronson Alcott and the Harvard Shakers, while Work and the Soul presents a more comprehensive 19th century view.

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