History, Natural History & the Arts
The Shaker Museum, which stewards an extensive collection of Shaker material culture and archives, has been awarded a $550,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant will be used to construct and outfit a climate-controlled collections storage facility within the new museum building planned for downtown Chatham, Columbia County, NY. [Read more…] about Shaker Museum Gets $550k For Climate-Controlled Collections Storage
There is a new book about the Shaker community and the original (1776) Shaker settlement in the United States in Watervliet, NY.
‘Their Name is Wicks’: One Family’s Journey Through Shaker History by Ann C. Sayers shines a light on the peak years of Shaker history, from the 1820s to the 1850s.
This is the first comprehensive study of a whole (and very large) family who moved to the Watervliet Shaker community. [Read more…] about New Shaker Book Highlights Watervliet Settlement
The Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon will host a weekend of events and programs to commemorate over 200 years of Shaker pacifism, from Saturday, August 29 through Monday, August 31.
The Mount Lebanon Peace Weekend will consist of readings, a brunch and facilitated discussion about Shaker pacifist history, a panel of speakers currently active in the peace movement, and a special walking tour. [Read more…] about Lebanon Shaker Museum Plans Peace Weekend
Joscelyn Godwin’s Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements in Early New York State (SUNY Press, 2015) is an outstanding guide to the phenomenal crop of prophets, mediums, sects, cults, utopian communities, and spiritual leaders that arose in Upstate New York from 1776 to 1914.
Along with the best known of these, such as the Shakers, Mormons, and Spiritualists, Upstate Cauldron explores more than forty other spiritual leaders or groups, some of them virtually unknown. [Read more…] about Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements in Early NYS
The New York State Museum will open a new major exhibition about the history and culture of the Shakers on November 15, 2014. The Shakers: America’s Quiet Revolutionaries will feature over 150 historic images and nearly 200 Shaker artifacts, including artifacts from three Shaker historical sites: the Shaker Heritage Society, Hancock Shaker Village and the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon.
In the late 1700s, the Shakers sought religious freedom in America, but their unique culture and spiritual practices set them apart from society. Their devotional routines as well as their product innovations and views towards gender equality seemed revolutionary. [Read more…] about Shaker Exhibition Opening At NYS Museum
The third annual Mount Lebanon Heritage Herb Festival celebrates the illustrious past of herbs in town history as well as the Native American and Shaker traditions in the heart of the Lebanon Valley of New York, considered the birthplace of the herbal pharmacy in the United States.
The event takes place on Saturday, June 7, 2014 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the historic grounds of Darrow School, at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village. More than eighteen talks, walks and workshops explore the role of herbs in food, gardens, medicine and health from the early days of the Native Americans to current practices. [Read more…] about Mount Lebanon Heritage Herb Festival Planned
The Shaker Museum – Mount Lebanon, in New Lebanon, Columbia County, NY, has completed the acquisition of 61 acres of land adjacent to its North Family site, part of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society National Historic Landmark District.
The parcel, known as the North Pastures, was purchased from the Darrow School, whose campus consists of the former Church and Center Families of Mount Lebanon’s former Shaker community. The purchase was achieved in a partnership with the Open Space Institute, a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to preserving scenic, natural, and historic landscapes, and also with funding from a 2012 grant from New York State. [Read more…] about Mount Lebanon Shaker Museum Adds 61 Acres
On Wednesday, September 25 the Shaker Museum – Mount Lebanon will hold an open house and reception with the Preservation League of New York State to celebrate the collaborative restoration efforts of the two organizations.
The Shaker Museum recently received a loan from The Preservation League of New York State to support the preservation projects currently underway at the North Family. [Read more…] about Mount Lebanon Shaker Museum Preservation Reception
Shaker Heritage Society recently completed a dynamic on-line resource called Virtual Watervliet (VWV). Virtual Watervliet provides a high quality experience via a website or mobile application that helps users better understand the significance and development of America’s first Shaker settlement.
At the core of VWV, is the digital reconstruction of all known Shaker structures built in the publically accessible areas of the Watervliet Shaker National Historic District since the late 18th century. The digital reconstruction allows users to fly through the historic site and to rotate 3D models of historic Shaker architecture. [Read more…] about An Innovative 3D, Augmented Reality Shaker Village Project
The Mount Lebanon Herb Festival will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, rain or shine on the campus of the Darrow School in New Lebanon, NY, the historic grounds of Mount Lebanon Shaker Village.
New Lebanon has a remarkable history with herbs. Its famous warm spring feeds the Shaker Swamp in the village of New Lebanon, and that supported an extraordinary collection of wild herbs long used by Native Americans. The Shakers, who based their national headquarters in New Lebanon, expanded on the uses of these herbs and created an industry around their sales. In 1824, Elam Tilden (father of politician Samuel J. Tilden) put this knowledge toward the start of one of the nation’s first pharmaceutical companies, the Tilden Company, using herbal tinctures, extracts and compounds derived in New Lebanon that were eventually marketed around the world. [Read more…] about Mount Lebanon Herb Festival at Historic Shaker Village