The Oneida Community: Free Lovers or Public Menace?
February 18 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Carl A. Rubino Hamilton at The Other Side Series presents:
The Oneida Community: Free Lovers or Public Menace?
with Christian Goodwillie – Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives
From 1848-1880, the Oneida Community (OC), 20 miles west of Utica, practiced a unique system of complex marriage,
that eventually included a planned breeding process. Their practices drew outrage from a Hamilton College professor, who
began a campaign to shut OC down. The OC’s public image was further tarnished by the assassination of president James
Garfield in 1881 by former OC member Charles Guiteau, events depicted in the 2025 Netflix series Death by Lightning. Goodwillie will talk about the origins, history, social and sexual practices of this famous experiment and make some corrections to the Netflix depiction!
Free and Open to the Public — Donations Welcome