The Utopia of Sharing in Oneida, N.Y. By BETH QUINN BARNARD FROM The New York Times

"THEY wanted to create a heaven on earth. For 33 years they believed they’d succeeded, at a utopian commune infamous for “free love.”

Nineteenth-century visitors to the Oneida Community in central New York State found a family of 300 individuals who lived in a rambling brick Mansion House and shared everything — their worldly possessions, their religious fervor, their sexual partners. Tourists came by the thousands on the railroad and paid 60 cents for one of the community’s mostly vegetarian dinners, or 25 cents for an evening’s 'grand entertainment.'"