The Oneida Community was a Utopian religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, a town in Central New York. Noyes and his adherents were believers in Perfectionism, the doctrine that it is possible to bring about Christ's millennial kingdom and be free of sin and perfect in this world. They practiced, among other things, plural or complex marriage, male continence and mutual criticism.
William A. Hinds (1833-1910) was a member of the Oneida Community for more than sixty years. He was editor of, and a contributor to, the Oneida Circular, the Community's newsletter, and a leading member of its governing committees. He was tasked by Noyes with visiting other communalistic and socialistic societies around the country, resulting in the publication of a study entitled American Communities (Oneida: Office of the American Socialist, 1878).
From the guide to the William A. Hinds Photograph Album, circa 1865, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
