Shaker Study Group
The Shaker Study Group brings together scholars, collectors, and enthusiasts in a shared commitment to the study of Shaker life and history. Encouraging new research, vibrant conversation, and hands-on engagement with material culture, we aim to support curiosity, interdisciplinary perspectives, and the continued evolution of Shaker scholarship in the 21st century.
Join us!
News & Updates
New Publication | Shakers at the Center: Manifesting Spirits & Spectacles in Nineteenth-Century America
Shakers at the Center brings the sprawling elements of the Era of Manifestations together in a single volume. Written for students, scholars, and general readers alike, it will stand for years as the definitive history of the Shakers’ most fascinating and vexing historical period. Edited by Dr. Douglas L. Winiarski.
News | Archaeology brings a vanished Shaker Community back into view in Tyringham, MA
Dr. Douglas Winiarski, with a team of University of Richmond students, professors, and local volunteers, conducted a three-day archaeological survey of the Tyringham Shaker Cemetery. They verified historical records using ground-penetrating radar, building a GIS map of one of the last surviving pieces of the former Shaker settlement.
New Publication | The Harvard Shakers and their Cultural Landscape by Ned Quist
In the small New England town of Harvard, MA, there grew a small but significant Shaker society that thrived between 1781 and 1918. Planted by Mother Ann Lee herself, this communal society established four farms in the northeastern part of Harvard, Ayer, and Littleton. Their membership grew to as many as 180 Believers in over 80 buildings on more than 3,000 acres.