Book excerpt: Presenting a musical history of the MacDowell Colony in the fullest sense, this work also contains new discoveries in several areas. It is a survey of 19th and early 20th century art colonies in the United States, and, with reference to a French exemplar, provides a context for the founding of the MacDowell Colony in 1907. The various formative pressures, influences, and motivations of the colony are explored, and its philosophical basis is identified and discussed.