Shaker Collections

All collections of Shaker work derives from the dissolution of most of the Shaker communities in the 1910-1930's.

The most well known collections are the result of the efforts of Faith and Edward Deming Andrews, as originally described in the book "A people called Shakers" and more recently the exhibit "Gather Up the Fragments". BUT these are merely the most visible of many collections of the productive work of the Shakers as manifest in craft work, art work and many many journals. Here are some of the places these collections can be found:

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village: Museum and Library

Shaker Sites now museums

The First Shaker Community was settled at Watervliet in the area now called Niskeyuna Watervliet, NY: Shaker Heritage Society: Watervliet

Major Museums

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

• Harvard and Fruitlands, MA:
  • Shaker Journals Search

College and Library Collections

• Hamilton College
  • Special Collection
• New York State Public Library @ Albany
  • NYPL: Shakers and Shakerism
• Winterthur Museum
  • Winterthur Museum: Demings Collection

• Philadelphia Museum of Art:
  • Zieget Shaker Collection Papers (ZSC)

• Western Reserve Historical Society Shaker Collection
  • GUIDE TO THE SHAKER MANUSCRIPTS
  • Digtial Form of Guide
  • Table of contents of reels of micro-film

Online Research Aids

• Mount Holyoke College
  • Research Guide, Dr. Crosthwaite, Religion 332: The Shakers

Major Museum/Minor Collections

• Metropolitian Museum of New York
  • Shaker Furniture
  • Shaker Art in Nineteenth-Century American Art
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Shaker Exhibit