Shakers

The Shakers are a small communitarian and mystical sect barely clinging onto existence today, which flourished at its heyday in the USA from the 1770s to the 1890s. However, the cultural significance of the Shakers has always far outweighed their numerical strength. They profoundly influenced social, political and artistic thought through their simple but harmonious music, architecture and furnishings. The book Locating the Shakers. Cultural Origins and Legacies of an American Religious Movement assesses that influence through publishing the proceedings of a specialist conference on the subject held at the University of Exeter. My contribution "Shakers as Feminists? Shakerism as a Vanguard in the Antebellum American Search for Female Autonomy and Independence" explores the particular approaches taken by this communitarian group to the interrelations between the sexes by focusing on the context of wider trends which took shape in nineteenth-century America.

In 1781, James Yates, a farmer in upstate New York, brutally murdered his family while suffering from a “religious delusion.” Fifteen years later, in 1796, The New York Weekly Magazine published an anonymously authored account of this episode, which in turn inspired Charles Brockden Brown’s novel Wieland. Previously unexamined newspaper reports of the original massacre uniformly link Yates’s violence to his religious identity as a Shaker. Shakerism’s emphasis on gender equality and rejection of patriarchal familial structures prefigured, in many ways, the republican ideological investment in women (particularly mothers) as repositories of virtue; thus, Yates’s crime can be understood as an early manifestation of a broader “crisis of masculinity” in the period. The 1796 account makes no mention of Yates’s Shakerism, but nevertheless participates in discourses of gender and nationhood; it memorializes the female victims, containing Yates’s “treasonous” violence against the family with...

This book addresses the relationship between religion and knowledge from a sociological perspective, taking both religion and knowledge as phenomena located within ever changing social contexts. It builds on historical foundations, but offers a distinctive focus on the changing status of religious phenomena at the turn of the twenty-first century. Including critical engagement with live debates about intelligent design and the ‘new atheism’, this collection of essays brings recent research on religious movements into conversation with debates about socialisation, reflexivity and the changing capacity of social institutions to shape human identities. Contributors examine religion as an institutional context for the production of knowledge, as a form of knowledge to be transmitted or conveyed and as a social field in which controversies about knowledge emerge.

Katolik Kilisesi’nin siyasal etkinliklere eğilim göstererek halkı dinsel ve ekonomik açıdan zorlaması sonucunda gelişen Protestan Reformu, 17. yüzyılda Kilise’nin mutlak otoritesine alternatif sunabilecek başka spesifik mezheplerin de ortaya çıkmasına zemin oluşturmuştur. Avrupa’nın tinsel revizyon süreci olarak deneyimlediği mevcut şartlar altında temelleri atılan ve yeryüzünde daha muntazam bir toplumsal kurgu yaratabilmenin mümkün olduğuna inanan Shakerların tarihsel gelişimlerinden -kanonik inançları ile biçimlendirdikleri- özgün tasarım anlayışlarına kadar tanıklık ettiği tüm süreç mekân ölçeğinde mobilya gelenekleri üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma konusunun kuramsal sınırlılıklarına yeni bir bakış açısı kazandırmak maksadıyla kapsamlı literatür taraması yapılmış ve mevcut tarihsel süreç içerisinde Shaker tasarım kültürünün oluşumuna yönelik kabul gören tüm yaklaşımlar tanımlı hale getirilerek tinsel öğretilerin mobilya ile temsil edilmesine yönelik pratikler detaylandırılmıştır. Bu bağlamda Shakers hareketinin ruhsal motivasyonu ile tasarım yaklaşımları arasında mobilya ölçeğinde iletişim kurabilmek maksadıyla alegorik ve hermenötik yöntemlerden yararlanılmıştır. Tarihsel model kullanılarak gerçekleştirilen bu nicel araştırmanın sonucunda; spiritüel yaklaşımlarını tasarım alışkanlıklarına aktaran ve mekânsal yönelimlerini manevi dünyalarının önemli katmanlarından biri haline getiren Shakers hareketinin benzersiz tasarım reflekslerini 20. yüzyılın fayda, basitlik ve güzellik gibi yol gösterici prensipleriyle kesiştiren mekânsal donatı ve mobilya örnekleri üretildiği dönemin dinsel, kültürel ve sosyal koşulları dikkate alınarak irdelenmiş ve günümüze ulaşan dizgesiz birçok bilgi sentezlenerek konuya ilişkin mevcut yazına katkı sağlamak amaçlanmıştır.

The essay is a case study of a small religious commune that lived on the so-called Lord's Farm in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, at the turn of the twentieth century. They were called the "Angel Dancers" because rumors were spread among their neighbors that they danced naked on tables. In fact, they believed in complete celibacy. The leader of the sect, a man named Huntsman Mnason, was imprisoned by the county authorities for kidnapping children and turning family members against each other.  However, Alfred P. Smith, an African-American journalist who published a small newspaper named The Landscape became a champion of their cause. The paper compares rumors about this sect to similar rumors spread about the Shakers in New York State and Massachusetts and the Ephrata Society in Pennsylvania, both groups that adhered to complete celibacy. Rather than welcoming communitarian groups, as suggested by some historians such as Arthur Bestor, Americans tended to view such groups with suspicion and prejudice.

“Perfect Child, Perfect Faith” studies how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the abolitionist and integrationist community of Berea, Kentucky, the Oneida Perfectionists, and the United Society of Believers (better known as Shakers) raised their children in the nineteenth century. Each of these communities incorporated a specific interpretation of Christianity and rejected “traditional” culture and society in favor of their “perfected” alternative. For each of these groups, children acted as a space to write their own identity. Children embodied hope, patriotism, faith, obedience, and goodness. Exploring childhood and children's experience in history can be difficult as retrieving the voices of children can be a daunting task. They produced less sources and materials than their adult contemporaries. And even fewer of these sources have been preserved. This means that much of their experiences, as they happened, are lost to historians. However, many of these children grew up to write memoirs, diaries, and brief histories of their people, which have provided access to children’s experiences. In addition to relying on memoirs, the dissertation uses handbooks and guides on childrearing and practices produced by each of the communities. Finally, it considers non-textual sources, especially photography of families and children, as well as illustrations in literature and periodicals. To understand how the communities raised their child and why these children did not
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continue their original communal goals, the dissertation is organized into four categories: the symbolic meaning of the child, the definition and role of the family, educational practices, and the connections between work and play. Each section considers both the community’s view of the child and the child’s actual experience. Often a child’s reality differed dramatically from the ideals and expectations of his/ her community. The dissertation argues that Mormons, Bereans, Oneida Perfectionists, and Shakers failed to raise their children in radically different ways and instead raised them similar to nineteenth-century bourgeois America: as innocents with the possibility of perfecting the future.

This book examines the nature and significance of religious enthusiasm in early Enlightenment England. In the early modern period, the term ‘enthusiasm’ was a smear word used to discredit the dissenters of the radical Reformation as dangerous religious fanatics. In England, the term gained prominence from the Civil War period and throughout the eighteenth century. Anglican ministers and the proponents of the Enlightenment used it more widely against Paracelsian chemists, experimental philosophers, religious dissenters and divines, astrologers or anyone claiming superior knowledge. As a result, our understanding of enthusiasm is largely influenced by the hostile discourse of Augustan moralist and early Enlighteners. But who exactly were these enthusiasts? What did they believe in, how did they operate as a community and what impact did they have on their contemporaries? This book aims to answer these questions by concentrating on the notorious case of the French Prophets. It demonstrates how the understanding of enthusiasm evolved around 1700, designating anything from a religious fanaticism to a social epidemic and even a bodily disease. It offers the first comprehensive approach to enthusiasm, looking at this multifarious issue from a successively social, religious, cultural, political and medical perspective. Based on extensive archival research, it sheds new light on the reality of enthusiasm away from the hostility of Enlightenment discourse.

The historiographic emphasis upon Faith and Edward Deming Andrews in the early twentieth-century rediscovery and promotion of Shaker material culture has undervalued the importance of the Index of American Design. Ruth Reeves, Holger Cahill, and their colleagues within this New Deal government agency were equally influential during the 1930s in selecting key objects that would comprise the sect’s canons of furniture and architecture. By excluding ornamental furnishings and fancywork that diverged from the standard of simplicity, the Index conflated Shaker design with modernism and nationalism and continues to inform how Americans view the group to this day.

On 16 December 2016, I signed a contract to curate as a freelance researcher an exhibition on Shakers and women's suffrage with Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon NY.

Since I have a literary agent, I had her review the contract to ensure my rights. The contract in no way indicated that Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon would retain property rights to my work if the contract were cancelled. If it had, I would not have signed it.

In December, in advance of the contract, I had provided a blurb describing the exhibition as I imagined it. I provide that blurb below.

"For the common good: Shaker women, equality and suffrage"
When Mother Ann Lee outlined her theology for the community that would become known as the Shakers, she placed equality at its heart. As the nature of God was dual, both male and female, the children of God were to be companions, brothers and sisters, each representing a share of God's image. This fundamental precept shaped gender relations within the Shaker communities, leading to dual offices in which men and women worked in tandem. But it wasn't enough for the Shakers to enact gender equality in their own communities. Called to serve their fellow man, the Shakers took to heart the call for women's suffrage. The 1884 Shaker Manifesto (quoting the resolutions of the Annual Meeting of the New England Woman Suffrage Association) denounced 'the political aristocracy of sex as contrary to nature, reason, justice, expediency and common-sense." This exhibition traces the evolution of Shaker gender relations, from the earliest prophecies of Mother Lee to the struggles of Shakers in the fight for universal suffrage.

On March 17, I provided a long description of the exhibition to be presented to the board meeting. That description is at the end of this note. I received no feedback positive or negative to that description.

On Friday, March 24, according to the contract deadlines, I submitted a completed script with item and wall labels. The contract allowed for revisions to be submitted on March 31. I received no feedback on the script, positive or negative, though I requested it.

On Monday, March 27, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon sent me a certified letter, rejecting the script, cancelling my contract, and retaining the final payment for my work.

Since Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon rejected the script, I sent them a certified letter in return, asserting my rights to use the rejected script as I pleased.

On May 13, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon sent out to their subscribers and members an emailed newsletter, advertising the exhibition I scripted. That newsletter used verbatim and entire the brief description of the exhibition I had provided, the only exception being that it used the revised title we had agreed upon:  "Break Every Yoke: Shakers, gender equality, and women's suffrage."

As a result, I must assume that Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon is using my rejected script without appropriate payment or acknowledgement of my authorship.

With this upload I assert my intellectual property rights to the "rejected" script I wrote.

I am currently formatting my "rejected" script for easy reading (I am making no changes to the content--just the format). I will upload it here in advance of the opening of the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon exhibition, in order to make clear what my intellectual property is.

Ann


Exhibition Description provided for Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon board meeting:

"Here's an overview of the exhibit as it stands:

The story of Shaker engagement with women's suffrage arcs through four chapters. Each section includes vignettes highlighting specific significant women and their place in the life of the community. Whenever possible, these vignettes include an image of the Shaker sister in order to give a face to these women and their engagement.

The first section focuses on Ann Lee, her role as the female Christ, and the theological status that gave Shaker women after her. This section notices work of Lucy Wright in guiding the community. Items include a document (a galley proof) of recollections of Mother Lee, in which the recollections come largely from women believers.

The second section underscores how these theological ideas were worked out in the practical life of the community. Here we see women gaining authority through the dual structure that allowed them to manage and oversee their own enterprises, as well as in religious experiences which allow them to articulate received spiritual truths (Mother Ann's manifestations). We see women in a variety of roles, not all domestic, such as Emma Neale (an elder and trustee of the community) who manages the cloak business, or Mary Hazzard or Hannah Cahoon who receives spirit messages (and through them spiritual authority). Documents include the trust that shows women as equal owners in the land; an end of the year financial accounting that shows women (but not men) earning money for the community;  a series of engravings of women working in the elixir business; a cauldron for mixing elixirs that appears in one of the engravings; a spirit drawing by Mary Hazzard or Polly Cahoon conveying a message to the spiritual leaders of the community; a hymn by Patsy Roberts Williamson and/or Charlotte Tann; poetry by Cecelia DeVere, etc. All of the documents in this section show women being embued with communal equality. Other women noted are Polly Landon, Asenath Clark, Betsey Bates, and Polly Reed.

The third section outlines how Shaker theology and practice lead to progressive political engagement, particularly in the causes of peace, abolition, temperance, and suffrage. It's important to note that Shakerengagement in suffrage is intimately, and inextricably, tied to the other ethical issues. For one to be in harmony with one's neighbor and one's god, one must set aside dominance and power in favor of equality and simplicity. And those who are in bondage, whether women, or slaves, or the poor ("wage slavery"), must be freed to become perfect representatives of god's people. One part of this notes the Shaker's outreach to the world's people through their publication program, including their monthly magazine (for which women set the type), and their participation in public meetings, particularly as lecturers. Documents include an engraving of the Shaker meeting at Steinway Hall and the broadside listing the topics discussed in that meeting (which include suffrage); Polly Reed's account of meeting Sojourner Truth, the former slave, abolitionist and suffragist; the image of the Shaker circle dance that depicts African-American members. Other women noted include Martha Jane Anderson (vegetarianism) and Rebecca Jackson Cox.

The fourth section narrows to examine Shaker statements on equality (which are almost exclusively theological) and evidence of Shaker engagement in suffrage movements or education. Documents  include Shaker teacher Amelia Calver's textbook Every Day Biography which includes biographical notices of reformers, including suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott; Antoinette Doolittle's speech at Steinway Hall (printed in Shaker and Shakeress); Harriet Bullard's statement on suffrage; Henry Evans' statement on women's equality, etc. Other women noted include Anna White, Leila Taylor,Annie Case, Ruth Webster.

Two sidebars accompany the exhibition:
1. The sorts of occupations a Shaker sister might engage in, shown in 2 items: a listing the occupations of a single woman (Elizabeth Longrove) over 2 years; and a page from Joseph Isaacs' list of the occupations of the Shakers, showing a swath of people engaged in a wide variety of work

2. a statement of the legal status of women outside the Shaker community
including the wording of the NY Married Women's Property Act."

This study presents the project of a portable electrodynamic shaker with permanent magnet, focused on educational applications. A one degree of freedom (DOF) model was used to analyze its vibratory characteristics. The development of the project was carried out in order to meet the application requirements and to have operational parameters similar to commercial products (manufactured abroad). A prototype was built and it had its main performance characteristics collected. The resonance frequency, the rigidity and the damping factor of the built system were measured experimentally, based on the electrical impedance curve. The acceleration curve in the frequency domain was also obtained, with the use of accelerometer. The results showed that the built shaker presents characteristics similar to those of the theoretical model, the mains differences being due, for the most part, to the nonconsideration - in the simulated model - of the influence of the coil inductance. The project met the initial requirements, being able to be used with or without a feedback control system, depending on the demanded application. Voltage and current drive were tested, and the acceleration response is found to be more homogeneous in the case of current excitation.

This article presents common-sense guidelines for singleaxis sweep sine and random vibration testing. Several actual
case histories are included as well to demonstrate these techniques.
Single-axis shakers (mostly electrodynamic1) are widely
employed for modal analysis, failure simulation and environmental testing in many research and design projects. In particular they are used for automotive and aerospace applications and
(in combination with laser-vibrometers) for testing miniature
high-technology MEMS sensors. A test engineer should have
a good theoretical background to help prevent new designs
from encountering long and costly feedbacks for design correction actions. Demonstration skills and teamwork with design
and manufacturing engineers are also desirable. Many theoretical and experimental ‘details’ on shaker testing are not clearly
covered, although they save time and assure high quality. This
article presents helpful guidelines for sweep sine and random
vibration testing, general relationships between natural and
resonant frequencies and fatigue failure testing. Simple (but
useful) equations are derived and applied to predict or interpret test parameters and results. The practical examples provided here are based on real case histories with names and
project/test details changed.

2013 thesis paper detailing a comparison between sacred woodworking in both New Mexican Santero traditions and the work of the New England Shakers, specifically addressing each aspect of the sacred that comes into play with these devotional objects: the maker, the audience, and the material itself. It also involves some newer research addressing the origins of santos making, particularly concerning don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco and his son, and draws a distinction between first and second generation santeros. The traditions of the Shakers and Santeros are compared and contrasted to further investigate what would qualify as sacred v. profane woodworking.

This postdoctoral project explores the inner workings of the diplomatic and prophetic networks of the Camisard Prophets in the great Huguenot diaspora that followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. It follows their prophetic missions across Europe to study their interactions with local millenarian communities, as they sought to reconcile Judaeo-Christian denominations into a universal Church ahead of Christ's Second Coming. My research suggests that the Camisards stood at the heart of a powerful millenarian network involving at least the Philadelphian Society, Quakers, Scottish Quietists, Irish Baptists, Dutch Bourignonists, German and Swiss Pietists, and Moravians, with further ramifications in Silesia, Hungary, Sweden and colonial America. Drawing upon a wide range of primary sources in five languages and from eight countries, this project retraces the Camisards' exile from France to England and the formation of their international network in an attempt to track the clandestine circulation of ideas and beliefs across national, religious and linguistic borders in the Enlightenment.

In July 1847, New Lebanon Shaker Prudence Morrell seethed in her journal, “The Canterbury apostates rode thro’ the village as undaunted as ever Judas of old did. They threw a number of their handbills into the dooryard, & on one of them was written with a pencil, that they expected to be here on the following sabb. As they passed the gathering order they sung a very pretty song; but they did not venture to speak to any one.” Since 1835, rogue apostates had marketed themselves to the public as “novel and amusing” acts, infuriating the Shakers by performing the song and dance of traditional worship before a bewildered audience promised novelty, peculiarity, and entertainment: “a great variety of SINGING, DANCING, WHIRLING, AND SHAKING” including a beautiful lady who “will Whirl round with the velocity of a Top !! Several hundred times without the least apparent fatigue, and without the least of that dizziness which usually accompanies that movement.” Broadsides emphasize the authenticity of the apostates while insisting on the moral edification of the show couched in the broader appeal of the eccentricity and previous concealment of their antics. In this paper, I contextualize the sensation of “Seceding Shaker” performance within the mythic cultural space of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York, a stage upon which the dancers famously performed in 1846 from September through December. Examining the ex-Shakers’ complex rationales and expectations for their performance, the prominence of spiritualism and communitarian living in the 1840s, and the public’s conflicting desires to other and learn from these productions offers a fresh perspective on the cultural significance of the empirically thriving communist sect in challenging and defining a national identity.

Como se mencionó en resúmenes anteriores, los shakers centraban su estilo de diseño en la idea religiosa de la pureza. La cantidad de pobreza en esa época era tan alta que tendieron al celibato para evitar todos los embarazos no deseados que pudiesen complicar más la situación en la que se encontraban. Las familias dedicaban sus días a trabajar sus tierras y a la fabricación de muebles de madera (observamos que era madera local ya que no se contaba con el poder adquisitivo para​ ​ importarla,​ ​ asimismo​ ​ la​ ​ madera​ ​ era​ ​ el​ ​ material​ ​ más​ ​ común​ ​ que​ ​ tenían). La reciente aparición de las patentes dio a Michael Thonet la oportunidad de trabajar con distintos tipos de maderas para su doblado e implementación en los muebles, una​ ​ de​ ​ las​ ​ invenciones​ ​ más​ ​ destacadas​ ​ de​ ​ esta​ ​ persona​ ​ es​ ​ la​ ​ mecedora. Algunos años más tarde, a finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX surge un movimiento artístico que toma sus raíces de distintos lugares de Europa, trayendo consigo muchas variaciones y bautizándose con el nombre de " arte nuevo o arte moderno " ; este arte veía con nostalgia la naturaleza y tuvo una fuerte inspiración de las pinturas japonesas que incluían constantemente elementos naturales, principalmente​ ​ las​ ​ flores. Podemos ver esta influencia del art nouveau en distintas partes de Europa: En España Antoni Gaudí con sus diversas construcciones en Barcelona, en Francia las entradas a los subterráneos por Guimard. En méxico pudimos ver esta influencia gracias​ ​ a​ ​ Porfirio​ ​ Díaz​ ​ que​ ​ tenía​ ​ fuertes​ ​ influencias​ ​ francesas. En ésta época aún no se veía la disciplina del diseño como una profesión, formaba parte de la arquitectura que tenía el deber de proponer todos los elementos de las creaciones​ ​ que​ ​ hacían. Finalmente alrededor de 1920 surge el movimiento de artes decorativas conocido como Art Déco que buscaba tener una relación directa o cierta identidad con la cultura del lugar de donde se creaba. Destaca el uso de figuras geométricas, vegetales​ ​ y​ ​ materiales​ ​ de​ ​ lujo.

Detailed analysis of the origins, contested meanings, and legacies of the controversial “jerking exercise” of the Great Revival (1799-1805). Emphasizes the formative role of the jerks in the development of western Shakerism and the rise of independent Holiness-Penetcostal churches in Appalachia.