Historian Rob Emlen is set to give an illustrated lecture on Early Depictions of Shakers at Mount Lebanon, on Saturday, March 17th from 4 to 5 pm at Stair Galleries, 549 Warren Street, in Hudson.
Following his visit to the Mount Lebanon Shaker village in August, 1856, the New York newspaper artist Benson Lossing made watercolor drawings to guide the production of the wood engravings that illustrated the article he published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine about daily life in a Shaker community. Although the illustrations for Lossing’s Shaker article were printed in black and white, his original watercolors have survived to give us an extraordinary glimpse at the colors of the Mount Lebanon Shaker village 162 years ago.
Rob Emlen recently retired as University Curator and Senior Lecturer in American Studies at Brown University. Presently he is at work on a book about how the Shakers were pictured in the popular illustrated press of 19th century America, a complement to his book Shaker Village Views, about how Shaker artists pictured their own communities in the 19th century.
This event is hosted by the Columbia County Historical Society and Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon.
Tickets will be available at the door for $15 for CCHS and Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon Members; and $20 for non-members, and early-bird rate tickets are available to purchase online, $15 for non-members.
Post-lecture, all attendees are invited to join CCHS and Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon for wine or other beverages.
Painting: Entrance to the Shaker Village, Lebanon, by Benson Lossing.
Leave a Reply