Unexpected Shaker

Exhibition open from Saturday, June 8 – Sunday, August 25, 2024

Kinderhook Knitting Mill
8 Hudson St., Kinderhook, NY 12016

True to its title, Unexpected Shaker focuses on unusual, lesser-known, and one-of-a-kind objects in the museum’s collection of over 18,000 material objects of Shaker culture.

Shaker Museum Director of Library & Collections Jerry Grant explains the inspiration for the exhibition’s theme: “In a 2019 article in Mortise & Tenon magazine, Brother Arnold Hadd of the Sabbathday Lake, ME, Shakers remarked that museums tend to exhibit Shaker objects universally agreed to represent excellence in Shaker design. These examples, however, fall short of telling the whole story of the Shakers. Unexpected Shaker presents examples from Shaker Museum’s collection that reflect the importance of function over aesthetics, the wear and tear of use, and the infiltration of worldly styles in Shaker life. Each vignette includes biographical information and, when possible, photographs of the maker.”

Some of the objects in this exhibition include a monochord (or piano-violin) designed and built by Brother Elisha Blakeman of the Mount Lebanon, NY, Church Family, a Victorian tripod sewing stand built by Brother Thomas Fisher of the Enfield, CT, Shaker Community, and an oil painting of theCanterbury, NH, Shaker Meetinghouse by Sister Cora Helena Sarle.