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Who are the Shakers ?

The Shakers, a Protestant religious sect officially called The United Society of Believers, originated in Manchester, England in 1747. "Mother" Ann Lee, "Father" William Lee, "Father" James Whittaker and a small group of followers settled in 1776 at a site called Watervliet, now in the Town of Colonie outside of Albany, New York,. The community they started grew through the 1800's to 18 relatively self-sufficient communities, The Shaker population peaked of approximately 4,500 members in the mid 1800's, fading to only a few Believers, in one community in Maine, by 2013.

Why are the Shakers interesting ?

Imagine a group of 100-300 people doing nothing but working and praying. Their motto is "Hands to Work, Hearts to God". Now, imagine that group being mainly farmers or doing small crafts, amidst the family farms in (mostly) New England in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Their relative wealth and productivity was incredible. Add to this, their contemplative nature, as such they wrote extensive journals about their activities and interactions with the "world's people". Multiply that by 16 communities they settled from Maine to Kentucky, even as far south as Georgia and Florida (for a short time).

As a result of this, they left an amazing trail of words and inventions, arts and crafts of various sorts, had interesting impacts on the law where they lived, built large farms and dwelling places. For those whose interest they catch, there are many facets to explore. We will try to share some of our explorations into the Shaker's history, past and present, with this web site.

What is this ?

Shakerpedia is a place where those interested in the Shakers can find and share information about the various aspects of Shaker life, we will be adding information from our collections and pointing to other Shaker resources. We will also be inviting various Shaker scholars and enthusiasts to expand the content.

So check back as Shakerpedia grows.

Stories about Events and Lectures

Our and others Shaker Sites

shakertown.net	shakerstudies.info	Shaker Biography's project
Shaker's on Wikipedia	Yearly Seminar and Lectures Bibliography
National Park Service	Where are they - Map of Shaker Communities, Museums and other sites of interest

Shaker Life

Daily Shaker Life revolves around the Church and Work, there are various documents written to codify that life, some of which have be included here. The nature of Shaker life lead to many individual journal, some of which have be transcribed, as all where originally handwritten. Some of those are available here and some have been published in conventional books, which are referenced here also.

• 1830 Shaker Covenant -- this is the document that each member agreed to when joining the Church

Where are/were they
Major locations Today's surviving Shaker communitity is at Sabbathday Lake, ME Sabbathday Lake, ME: Sabbday Lakeath Shaker Village The First Shaker Community was settled at Watervliet in the area now called Niskeyuna Watervliet, NY: Shaker Heritage Society: Watervliet Pittsfield, MA: Hancock Shaker Village Canterbury, NH: Canterbury Shaker Village Mount Lebanon, NY: Mount Lebanon Shaker Village South Union, KY: Shaker Museum At South Union Pleasant Hill, KY: Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill Enfield, NH: Enfield Shaker Museum	Other Locations, with more online information Tyringham, MA: Harvard and Fruitlands, MA: Shirley, MA: Enfield, CT: SAVOY, MASSACHUSETTS (1817-1821) North Union, Ohio: Shaker Heights Union Village, OH: Lebannon Watervliet, OH: White Water, OH:

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