Shaker Simplicity (1800-1860)
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People today admire Shaker furniture and architecture because of its simplicity, honesty, grace, utility and sturdiness. These are the qualities that characterize the things they made, because these were the ideals that the Shakers felt were part of God’s heaven and his home. As one member said, "What are goods worth unless they are full of genuine religion?" The lack of adornment bespoke the Shakers’ determination not to let anything unnecessary stand between the believer and his God. Order, harmony and utility were the objectives of good workmanship. It is a recognizable look, not "factory-like" as some have described their buildings, nor austere and "grim" as Charles Dickens once called the Shaker furniture, but, rather like its users, dispassionate, reliable and unworldly. Between 1787 and 1826, nineteen Shaker communities were established in eight states from Maine to Kentucky. A surprising number of people joined - some six thousand between 1830 and 1850. The Shaker communities were one of the American marvels, visited by many foreigners, including Dickens, who scoffed at their "grimness". |
Between the Revolution and the Civil War, a generation of uncompromising dreamers emerged in America, most of them Utopians or millenniumists, seeking "heaven on Earth". They organized a great variety of socialist, voluntary communities that lived apart from the rest of society. Some were insistently and narrowly religious; others were secular and permissive. Some were extremely democratic; some, extremely autocratic. Some were peopled by visionaries who did not know one end of a saw from the other; others distinguished themselves by their craftsmanship. Looking at plain but neat Shaker chairs and barns today, it is evident that the Shakers made their heavenly ideals a working part of their everyday life in all things they made. Their motto was "put your hands to work, and you hearts to God."
The shops of the Shaker joiner and cooper, blacksmith and tinsmith, wheelwright and tanner, tailor, weaver, and dyer, turned out an amazing variety of products both for sale and for use by the community itself. All reflected "th
About Wendell Garrett
We are pleased to present a continuing series of articles by Mr. Garrett, a regular contributor on the Sack Heritage Group website, dealing with many aspects of the decorative arts
Mr. Garrett, presently Consultant of Americana at Sotheby’s and Editor-at-Large of The Magazine Antiques, received a B.A. in American History from UCLA and his M.A. from the University of Delaware Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. He subsequently continued his graduate work in American History at Harvard University.
In 1959, Mr. Garrett joined the staff of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society where was the Assistant Editor of the Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (4 vols.) and Associate Editor of the first two volumes of Adams Family Correspondence. In 1965, he discovered the earliest diary of John Adams at the Vermont Historical Society and edited it for publication by Harvard University Press. In 1966, he joined the staff of The Magazine Antiques, where he was ultimately made Editor and Publisher. From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Garrett served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (Monticello) and is currently Secretary of the Royal Oak Foundation. In October, 1994, he was awarded the Henry Francis du Pont Award for distinguished contribution to the American arts.
Wendell Garrett is the author of Apthorp House, 1760-1960 and Thomas Jefferson Redivius. He is co-author of The Arts in Early American History and The Arts in America: The Nineteenth Century, Classic America: The Federal Style & Beyond (1992), Victorian America: Classical Romanticism to Gilded Opulence (1993), and Monticello and the Legacy of Thomas Jefferson (1994) and Classic America (1995). Most recently, Mr. Garret co-authored the book, American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure (2001).
