Old Photograph Stewarton Scotland

Old photograph of Stewarton in East Ayrshire, Scotland. David Dale was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire in 1739. He was a leading Scottish industrialist, merchant and philanthropist during the Scottish Enlightenment period at the end of the 18th century. He was a successful entrepreneur in a number of areas, most notably in the cotton spinning industry and was the founder of the world famous cotton mills in New Lanark, where he provided social and educational conditions far in advance of anything available anywhere else in the UK. Scotland’s leading historian, Professor Sir Tom Devine, described Dale as " the greatest cotton magnate of his time in Scotland. " New Lanark attracted visitors from all over the world. Dale’s daughter, Caroline, married Robert Owen in 1799 and by 1800, Dale had sold the mills to a group of businessmen led by Robert Owen. Owen, often described as Utopian Socialist, saw New Lanark as a testing ground for what he called his New Social System, an experiment in communitarian living, where education was the key to character formation. He managed New Lanark for nearly 25 years, and the community continued to attract visitors from across the globe.



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