Museographs: Shaker Design

Caron Caswell Lazar

Description

Escape to the perfect world! A world where prejudice is passé, order is normal, and function is favored. This is the world of the Shakers.

Best-known as an eighteenth-century utopian religious community, and often liken to the Amish, few are aware of the many accomplishments that are distinctly Shaker. Shakers have excelled as architects and chemists, craftsmen and inventors. During a twenty-five-year heyday they had a hand in everything from circular saws to textiles, decorative boxes, and home furnishings. Museographs' Shaker Design explores the depth of some of their many achievements. It preserves the integrity and uniqueness of the community dispelling misconceptions about these God-fearing few.

A special focus on the dearly loved and ever recognizable Shaker chair celebrates technical precision, beauty and variety that stands as a testament to God's presence in both Shaker lifestyle and in Shaker art.

Sujets

• Histoire
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 02 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456616540
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

MUSEOGRAPHS
Shaker Design
 
 
by
Carôn Caswell Lazar

Copyright 2013 Carôn Caswell Lazar,
All rights reserved.
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1654-0
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
The Museographs monographs are publications of The Lazar Group, Incorporated
 
Museographs Shaker Design , Copyright 1992 Carôn Caswell Lazar
All rights reserved
No reproductions of this newsletter, or its attending materials, in whole or in part or in any form may be made without written authorization of the copyright owner.
 
Museographs Titles:
 
Japanese Satsuma Pottery
Contemporary African-American Folk Art
Shaker Design
Mexican Painting of the 19th & 20th Centuries
The Sioux
Appalachian Handicrafts
The Cherokee
The Art of Islam: A Survey
The Old City of Jerusalem
Illuminated Manuscripts
Mexican Folk Art
Kanien’kehaka
Art, Myth, Legend and Story
The Art of the Celts
Shaker Design
[The Shakers] recognized no justifiable difference in the quality of workmanship for any object, no gradations in the importance of the task. All must be done equally well whether it was the laying of a stone floor in the cellar, the making of closet doors in the attic, or the building of a meetinghouse. The work required nothing less than all the skill of the workers.
—Charles Sheeler
 
 

 
“Shakers near Lebanon, State of New York, their mode of worship.”
Collection of Hancock Shaker Village, Inc., Pittsfield, Massachusetts
The drawing represents a public worship service. Probably produced by the Kellogg Brothers circa 1850-1851.
 
 
Historic Overview
 
Who Were the Shakers?
 
The Shakers were America’s largest and best-known communal utopian society. Their real name was the United Society of Believers in the First and Second Appearance of Christ, but they were known as Shakers because of the rigorous dances that were a part of their religious worship. Begun in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Shakerism reached its height in 1840 having almost 6,000 believers in villages stretching from Maine to Kentucky.
 
Founded by an illiterate English factory worker named Ann Lee (known as Mother Ann), the Shakers believed that God’s nature was dual, incorporating both masculine and feminine qualities. Based on this belief, that all of God’s children were equal, the Shakers practiced social, economic and spiritual equality seventy-five years before the emancipation of slaves and one hundred and fifty years before the women’s vote. They were among the first pacifists and were granted a special exemption by President Lincoln as conscientious objectors during the Civil War.
 
They believed in equality of the sexes and practiced feminism. Eldress Anna White, a leader of the Shakers as well as of the American Progressive Movement, headed a universal peace conference at the Mount Lebanon Community with delegates from around the world. They called for reduced arms and taxes, a world court and an international police force. When introduced to President Theodore Roosevelt, it is reported that the President said of his meeting with Eldress White, Turk meets Turk .
 
The Shakers believed and practiced freedom from prejudice. In one instance during the Civil War it is recounted, Today we bought Jonas Cruther, a colored believer of nineteen years, in order to prevent his sale as a slave to the South.