Robert Dale Owen

Robert Dale Owen was a Scottish-born Welsh-American social reformer who was active in Indiana politics as member of the Democratic Party in the Indiana House of Representatives and represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–1847). As a member of Congress, Owen successfully pushed through the bill that established the Smithsonian Institution and served on the Institution's first Board of Regents. Owen also served as a delegate to the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850 and was appointed as U.S. chargé d'affaires to Naples (1853–1858).