SHAKER MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

Collections & Exhibitions

Overview

Housing more than 28,000 objects, the Shaker Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the premier collection of Shaker artifacts in the world. The Museum's holdings span over 200 years of Shaker history and represent more than a half century of scholarship and collecting.

The strength and scope of the collection resulted from the relationship that developed between the Museum's founder, John S. Williams, and members of the Shaker leadership at Mount Lebanon, New York, Canterbury, New Hampshire, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, and Hancock, Massachusetts. With his interest in these people and their history, Williams recognized the need to collect and preserve Shaker artifacts and records so that future generations could learn about the Shakers. He collected objects from every facet of Shaker life, including machinery, tools and equipment, household furnishings, textiles, baskets, oval boxes and woodenware, books, and manuscripts materials that document the temporal and spiritual lives of Shakers. His relationship with Shakers living in the mid-20th century resulted in the establishment of the Shaker Museum and Library, a museum that would preserve and interpret the Shaker legacy for generations, and present a broad picture of Shaker life and culture.

Buckets, pails, lids and firkins from Canterbury, N.H., Enfield N.H. and Mt. Lebanon N.Y. communities (1825-1875)

As a result of Williams' collaboration with those Shakers, the majority of the Museum's collection came directly from Shaker communities. Since the Museum's founding in 1950, the collection has continued to grow through gift and purchase. The collection is strong in all aspects of Shaker material culture and contains furniture, decorative arts, and objects of everyday life and work including stoves, woodworking tools and machinery, oval boxes, wooden carriers, buckets, poplar ware, seed boxes, textile equipment, baskets, brooms, clocks, transportation artifacts, architectural fragments, and objects related to the science and communication industries, and agricultural and medical equipment. The Museum houses one of the finest Shaker textile collections that includes dresses, cloaks, men's clothing, footwear, bonnets, silks, rugs, household fabrics, dolls, and accessories.

Bench (1820-1850), balance(unknown)  and case of drawers (1825-1850) from the Mt. Lebanon community

The Museum has amassed a diverse and eclectic collection that contains objects from every Shaker community including every size and form of Shaker chair; a tiger maple side chair with pewter tilters from Mount Lebanon; a 13 foot long trestle table from Hancock; a stunning blue work counter from the Meetinghouse at Canterbury; Thomas Corbett's electro-static machine and a 1822 fire engine, a rare marble fountain stone, and a Shaker washing machine, also from Canterbury. Recent acquisitions include a collection of original music manuscripts from Mount Lebanon; three signed spinning wheels, from Alfred, ME, Canterbury, NH, and Mount Lebanon, NY; an 1866 blanket chest made and signed by Elder Richard Bushnell, also from Mount Lebanon; a collection of Shaker bonnets; and a New York State Agricultural Society Medal awarded to the Sisters at Mount Lebanon for excellence in their fancy work.

Shelves holding sieves, firkins and seed boxes (19th century)

Research Requests: Policies and Fees

The Curatorial Department does accept research requests. As a private, not-for-profit institution, the Shaker Museum does charge fees for researchers who wish access to the Museum's object collection. The fee is $25 an hour. All research is by appointment only. Fees apply for any research that includes examining and handling of objects on display in the exhibition buildings, and for access to collections storage areas. All appointments must be made in advance.

Requests should be directed by mail to:
Curator, Shaker Museum and Library, 88 Shaker Museum Road, Old Chatham, NY 12136

By phone:(518) 794-9100 ext. 205

By email to skoomler@shakermuseumandlibrary.org

Apple drying implements and general tools(19th century)

 

New Exhibitions-2005

Notable Neighbors: The Shaker Legacy in Columbia County

Visitors to Notable Neighbors will see objects from the collection that have rarely been displayed at Old Chatham, including a 19th century garment bag and traveling trunks used by Shakers during missionary and business journeys, an adaptation of a mid-19th century New York seed route map, an 1814 manuscript covenant that describes the benefits and obligations of being a Shaker, gift drawings that document the Shakers' spiritual renewal in the mid-19th century, and a fragment of Mother Ann's garments purported to have been worn by her on the voyage to America. Aspects of Shaker building design will be evident in a variety of architectural fragments, which show the influence of local and regional aesthetics. Some of the more inventive tools designed and used by Shakers to build up and maintain the landscape will also be on view.