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| American Craft: Shaker Design Collecting Americana has multiple rewards. Perhaps the number one: we can see, through an object, the story of its original importance and its creators. And in that, discover delightful, and many times very personal, glimpses into history. Take a simple oval box made by Shakers, for example. Generally, a craftsman would slice a paper-thin strip from a three or four inch section of log crosswise, against the grain. A nine-inch log would make a nine-inch box, a 12-inch log a 12-inch box. He'd soak the wood to make it pliant, and wind it around an oval form. Then finish it off with distinctive "swallowtail" joints and a neat, tight-fitting lid. Shakers would use the boxes to store all types of dry goods, from herbs and seeds to needles and thread. Though the Shakers did not originate the design of the oval box, they refined it, manufactured and sold many. It has since become identified with the Shaker's appreciation for simplicity of form. Shakers did not go out of their way to acquire possessions. "Set not your hearts upon worldly objects," a ministry letter said, "but let this be your labor, to keep a spiritual sense." Indeed, after entering a Shaker community, an individual was expected to surrender his "worldly" possessions, which would usually be sold. By 1840, about six thousand members resided in eighteen communities from Maine to Kentucky. They lived in large "Families" that practiced celibacy and daily confession, devoting their lives to work and celebrating their love of God through rousing dance worship. Men occupied one side of Shaker dwelling houses, women the other. The group espoused advanced social principles: equality of the sexes, races and pacifism. In their time, they were scorned, ridiculed and treated with suspicion, but nevertheless survived. Eight "Believers" and the prophetess leader, Mother Ann Lee, set sail from England in 1774 on a hazardous three-month voyage to the New World. As an offset of the English Quaker church, they had earned the derisive title "Shaking Quakers" because of the frenzied shaking and whirling dances of worship. The name was simplified to just Shakers, the name they ultimately used for themselves. Ann Lee grew up in Manchester, England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. She had been a child laborer in the textile mills. She married and gave birth to four children, all of whom died young. She was illiterate. As a young person, she turned her energies away from her worldly life, and instead focused on searching for security after death. She joined a dissident sect whom worshipped by giving themselves to being, quite literally, moved by the spirit of God. Soon Ann began to see visions, to hear Christ speak to her. Revelations convinced her that the only true road to salvation was celibacy and confession of sin. While in prison for religious persecution, Ann received a vision of Christ. She told followers that Christ had made his first appearance following his resurrection to a woman, which "showed that his Second Coming would be as a woman." Thus the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing was born and Mother Ann became its leader. Scholars differ as to whether her followers believed her to be the female Reincarnation or whether she was merely a prophet predicting such a coming. Mother Ann Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August with song, dance, and the presentation of Mother Ann cake. As if the group has come full circle, only a handful of active Shakers remain in a community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, today. As the early Shakers built utopian communities, they sought to create a "Heaven on Earth." As a result, the villages and goods in them all exist in harmony with each other. Ann told her followers to keep things in such order that they would know where to find them day or night. The purpose of work was as much to benefit the spirit as it was to produce goods. "Do all your work as though you had a thousand years to live, and as you would if you knew you would die tomorrow," Ann said. "Put your hands to work, and your hearts to God." Work and worship were not separate in the Shaker world. They labored to create a visible world in harmony with their inner life: simple, excellent and stripped of excess. Thomas Merton attributed the "particular grace" of a Shaker chair to the maker's belief that "an angel might come and sit on it." To keep things in order, Shakers used a number of cabinets, cupboards and drawers. Although furniture-makers avoided grain painting of veneer to convert plain wood to fancy, they sometimes used naturally ornate woods. Chests were used to store clothing and bedding. Likewise, strips of pegs were placed around the perimeters of most rooms to hang clothes, tools, equipment and even chairs -- clearing the floor for sweeping and community activities. Many articles were specifically designed to hang from pegs, like wall clocks and household items. Nearly all nineteenth century Shaker communities practiced the basketry trade -- making baskets in a wide variety of shapes for different purposes. Large circular baskets with an open hexagonal weave were used to drain cheese curd. Sturdy, two handled containers carried apples and other crops; delicate, smaller baskets filled the need for indoor or personal use. Shakers fashioned most baskets from ash, a wood that lends itself to splitting and bending. Much of the labor in such basket making involves pounding the logs to separate its fibers so those long strips needed for weaving may be peeled away. Shaker communities were known to be progressive in farming and the development of tools and farm implements. Among Shaker items found in museums are stoves, foundry patterns, molding planes, wheelbarrows and a mortising machines. Additionally, Shakers left a rich legacy of textiles and textile equipment. For the most part, original Shaker furnishings, tools and household items reside in museum collections. Reproductions are common -- and unless it's possible to trace a piece directly back though family lines to its Shaker heritage -- authentication may be nearly impossible. In the former Shaker village of Pleasant Hill, KY, you can watch folks making barrels, boxes and flat brooms the way Believers did a hundred years or so ago. A man making boxes explains, "We teach people to make boxes using the same wood and fasteners the Shakers used. Set it in the sun a few years, let the kids play with it, and you'd never tell it from an original." Hopefully, Shakers would think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; and be pleased their excellence in design endures. 'Tis a gift to be simple |
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