This volume would not exist without the diligence of Kenneth R. Small, who saved items that his parents, W. Emmett and Carmen Fick Small, collected during the many years that they were residents of the Theosophical community called Lomaland and, later on, as former members of that community. Some of the primary source materials published in Revisiting Visionary Utopia were on display for four years in an exhibit at San Diego State University that Small co-curated with SDSU archivist Robert C. Ray. The presentation contained art works and three-dimensional objects as well as documents, photographs, and other ephemera. In conjunction with this exhibit, Small collaborated with Ray and worked with Theosophical History editor James A. Santucci to create the book under review, an occasional paper that contains a wealth of materials relevant to the history of the Lomaland community.
By way of background, Katherine Tingley (1847–1929), a social reformer, became...
University of California Press