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Dancing Classes at New Lanark This line and watercolor drawing focuses on figures in the center and the surrounds of a large well-lit room. In the central foreground there are three groups of eight young girls. Dressed in white empire waisted dresses, trimmed with pink bands, the girls are barefoot and wear their hair in curls around their heads. Each group has two or three girls in a dance action, while the remaining figures face towards the center. Their shadows are cast on the planked wooden floor beneath them. To the right, two well-dressed men stand beneath a hanging map of Western Europe. A pointer rests on the ground. They look on at the girls as they dance. Behind them, at the corner of the room, three musicians play violins and share the same sheet music. To the left, a large group of well-dressed onlookers sit beneath a wood paneled second story gallery. White clothes hang over the gallery's ledge, and three faces are seen peeking out. In the middle ground, several groups of well-dressed figures sit on a long wooden bench beneath the tall window. Many of the women wear simple white long sleeved empire waist dresses. All of the women wear bonnets, some carry purses. The view through the tall windows show a panorama of simple, multi-windowed buildings. At the second story level there is a series of murals depicting animals in their habitat. Background In 1785, entrepreneur David Dale and inventor Richard Arkwright, began to develop a new cotton-spinning mill on the banks of the River Clyde, near Glasgow. In harnessing the waterpower of the Clyde with large water wheels, Arkwright's spinning machines could do the work of thousands of hand spinners. By 1793, 6000 spindles were operating in Mill #2. New Lanark eventually developed into the largest cotton-spinning mills in Britain. Children were needed to operate the "jennies" in the mill room. Most of the children were pre-adolescent - some as young as six. A dormitory was provided for the 'orphans' of the surrounding parishes. Village children would receive a wage, while a dormitory and maintenance was provided for the 'orphans' of surrounding parishes. Robert Owen, a pioneer of the co-operative movement and of Utopian ideals and son in law to David Dale, became manager of New Lanark in 1800. Owen began a course of 'improvements' for New Lanark, focusing on organization and discipline. In 1814 his essay, The New View of Society or the Formation of Character, was published. In 1816, Owen established England's first 'Infant' (elementary) school for the education of the village's children. Paramount to Owen's educational philosophy was the nurturing of the senses through singing, dancing and an appreciation of nature. The school remained open in the evening for the education of older children (ten - twenty year olds) who worked in the mills. This drawing illustrates the success of the model educational system operating within the community of a busy and prosperous cotton-spinning community. The houses of the poor and working classes are generally all together unfit for the training of young children…these considerations created in me the first thoughts respecting the necessity of infant education to be based on the true principle of forming character from the earliest period at which infants could leave their parents. The upper storey is divided into two apartments. One, which is the principal schoolroom…is about 90 feet long, 40 feet broad and 20 feet high. It is surrounded, except at one end where a pulpit stands, with galleries which are convenient when this room is used, as it frequently is, either as a lecture room or a place of worship.
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