Communal Societies

Description: The Special Collections of Hamilton College include a substantial gathering of primary and secondary source materials relating to Communal Societies: groups of people intentionally living separate from the surrounding general society according to a shared set of principles, whether religious or secular, with common ownership of property. This collection comprises manuscripts, printed works, visual materials, audio/video materials, ephemera, and artifacts from the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries. The collection also includes related materials on Spiritualism, Western Esotericism, the Occult, Botanical Medicine, Psychedelic drugs, and pseudosciences such as Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Phrenology, and Hydropathy.