Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Andrews Shaker Collection – A Gallery Walk

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Reception:  5:30PM Gallery Walk: 6:00PM

Guided tour and discussion of selected highlights from The Andrews Shaker Collection hosted by Stephen L. Fletcher, Director and Christopher Barber, Deputy Director of American Furniture & Decorative Arts. The event will feature Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections, Hamilton College and co-author of Gather Up The Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection.… Read More

During the latter half of the 20th century the American public probably most associated the Shakers with well-made antique furniture. Two quotes are often invoked in association with this. Trappist monk Thomas Merton said “the peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it.” Conversely, Sister Mildred Barker of the Sabbathday Lake, Maine, Shakers lamented that non-Shakers admired Shaker material culture at the expense of the Christ-life embraced by Believers.… Read More

The Andrewses had a keen eye for all things Shaker, but their effort to preserve Shaker ephemera—printed materials designed for short-term use—seems remarkably prescient. During their sweeps through buildings at Mount Lebanon and Watervliet, New York, during the 1920s they saved literally thousands of labels that almost surely would have been otherwise destroyed. As historian Richard M. Kolbet documented in his article “Publish & Perish: Printed Ephemera and Social History”, the conscious collection of printed ephemera in Britain and the United States began in the 1920s with printer Johnn Johnson at Oxford, and collector Bella Landauer in New York.… Read More

May 31, 2014 at 4PM

The Shakers: Models for Modernism, an illustrated lecture by Jean M. Burks, Senior Curator, Shelburne Museum

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The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hancock Shaker Village 1843 West Housatonic Street Pittsfield, MA 01202 www.hancockshakervillage.org

Sponsored by: Skinner

In conjunction with the presentation of The Andrews Shaker Collection at auction, on June 15th in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Contact: events@skinnerinc.com

… Read More

May 17, 2014 at 1PM

Two Hundred Forty Years of Shaker Life in America, an illustrated lecture by Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections, Hamilton College

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The lecture is free with museum admission.

Fruitlands Museum 102 Prospect Hill Road Harvard, MA 01451 www.fruitlands.org

Sponsored by: Skinner

In conjunction with the presentation of The Andrews Shaker Collection at auction, on June 15th in Marlborough, Massachusetts.… Read More

May 4, 2014 at 1PM

The Shakers: Models for Modernism, an illustrated lecture by Jean M. Burks, Senior Curator, Shelburne Museum

REGISTER

The lecture is free with museum admission.

Fruitlands Museum 102 Prospect Hill Road Harvard, MA 01451 www.fruitlands.org

Sponsored by: Skinner

In conjunction with the presentation of The Andrews Shaker Collection at auction, on June 15th in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

 Contact: events@skinnerinc.com

… Read More

New Lebanon, New York, the spiritual and administrative center of the Shaker communities, was home to many dedicated Believers from 1780 until its final closure in 1947. Brother Isaac Newton Youngs, however, might be considered “first among equals” due to his seemingly endless capacity for work, and careful attention to detail. As Glendyne Wergland’s biography One Shaker Life amply shows, Youngs applied his skillful hands to nearly every aspect of life at New Lebanon.… Read More