Abstract

Studies of nineteenth-century North American utopian communities are rarely interested in the relationships that these may have had with members or sympathizers from other communities outside the United States. It was between 1872 and 1901 that Oneida, one of the best-known communities in the United States, was the subject of an investigation conducted by Auguste Fabre, who was close to Jean-Baptiste André Godin, the founder of the Familistère de Guise in France. An analysis of the mail circulating in the network formed by and around Auguste Fabre shows that much information on Oneida, including many written documents and photos, was exchanged by both sides of the Atlantic and contributed, albeit slowly, to an internationalization of the communitarian movement.