SHAKER MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

Our History

The Shaker Museum and Library was founded in 1950 by John S. Williams, Sr. in collaboration with the Shaker leadership then extant at Canterbury Shaker Village, NH,  Sabbathday Lake, ME, and Hancock Shaker Village, MA.

The Shaker Museum was the first and, at that time, only public museum dedicated to preserving the life, work, art and religious history of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, commonly known as the Shakers.

The goal was the establishment of a museum that would preserve and interpret the Shaker legacy for generations to come. The important artifacts that the Shakers made available to the Shaker Museum and Library reflect the role they expected the institution to play in the preservation of their history.

The capstone of the initial collecting effort was the collection of journals, printed material, manuscripts, and photographs in the care of the Central Ministry that were presented to the Shaker Museum and Library in 1962 by Eldress Emma B. King. Between 1950 and 1962, 70 percent of the collection, which today totals 28,000 objects and 19,000 archival pieces, was acquired.

Marble top counter (date unknown), bowls and kitchen implements as displayed in our main gallery.

The Shaker Museum and Library has built an outstanding reputation as the premier study collection of Shaker life, culture and religion, as scholars and researchers, including those working at Shaker site restorations, use the Shaker Museum and Library's comprehensive holdings as an essential resource. The Museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 1972, was most recently re-accredited in 2004 and was named a primary organization by the NewYork State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). In 1996, the Shaker Museum and Library was cited as one of the "Most Extraordinary Museums" in New York State at Why I Love NY awards.

Upon the founder's death in 1982, the institution began to evolved from a family-based collection to a professional institution. An organizational infrastructure, with professionally-trained directors, collections care and conservation management practices, and educational programming was implemented during this period. In 1990, the Board of Directors changed the organization's name to the Shaker Museum and Library, in recognition of the dual nature of the institution's collections.

Shaker stoves (date unknown) from the Mt. Lebanon, N.Y. and Enfield, N.H. communities.

The Shaker Museum and Library opened its first loan exhibition and catalogue, Making His Mark: The Work of Shaker Craftsman Orren Haskins. The Haskins exhibition has garnered attention from national publications such as The Magazine Antiques, American Style, Colonial Home, Country Victorian, Maine Antiques Digest, New England Antiques Journal, Mid-Atlantic Traveler and The New York Times.

From January 21 through April 2, 1999, the Museum presented the exhibition Shaker Gifts, Shaker Genius: The Collections of the Shaker Museum and Library at the PaineWebber Art Gallery in New York City. This exhibition highlighted diverse icons of Shaker design including the Shaker chair, furniture, oval boxes, textiles, prints, historical writings, photographs, and gift drawings. During the 2000 season, the Shaker Museum and Library partnered with the Seattle Art Museum to present Creating Perfection: Shaker Objects and Their Affinities, engaging countless numbers of people with the Shaker legacy and the Shakers' important contributions to America's history. The museum also celebrated its 50th anniversary with an exhibit at home titled Gathering the Spirit: Fifty Years at the Shaker Museum and Library.

Shaker chairs as displayed in the exhibition From Mt. Lebanon to the World, at the Shaker Museum and Library in the main gallery.

In 2001, the exhibition Work: Shaker Design and Recent Art, opened as a collaborative effort between the Shaker Museum and Library and the Tang Teaching Museum. The show combined Shaker objects and works by contemporary artists in an attempt to look at both in new ways. Also in 2001, the exhibition Heavenly at the UCLA Hammer Museum and featured ten items from the collection of the Shaker Museum and Library and a total of over one hundred Shaker gift drawings. In 2002, the exhibit Inspired Choices: Creation of Shaker Life opened at the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Massachusetts. The exhibit combined objects from the Shaker Museum and Library and other select Shaker sites to demonstrate that the spiritual belief system and communal way of life led the Shakers to make specific aesthetic choices. In June of 2001, the Shaker Museum and Library received a $750,000 Save America's Treasures grant to investigate the wisdom of acquiring the North Family site in New Lebanon, New York and the feasibility of building a state-of-the-art museum for the Shaker Museum and Library collection at that location.

In August of 2002, the Shaker Museum and Library Board of Directors cast the historic vote to implement the master Plan, developed by architects Cooper, Robertson and Partners, to construct a museum within the shell of the Great Stone Barn at the North Family site. The Great Stone Barn was the largest stone barn in America. Ravaged by a devastating fire in 1972, all that remains of this remarkable structure is its masonry shell. It is the hope of the Museum's board and staff that we can reclaim and rehabilitate this national treasure as the new home of the Shaker Museum and Library. This timely action will accomplish several goals: -The salvation and rehabilitation of the Great Stone Barn and eventually, the other endangered structures.
-The long-term preservation of America's most significant collection of Shaker objects, that includes over 28,000 artifacts and 19,000 archival items.
-Reunification of these artifacts with their original home, 80% of these objects originally came from the Mount Lebanon Shakers. During this process, the Shaker Museum and Library in Old Chatham, New York remains open to the public with a full schedule of special events, lectures, educational programs and tours slated for the 2005 season.

Herb cupboard from the Church family, Mt. Lebanon, New York community as exhibited in our main gallery.