Shaker Resources
ARTICLES
Gentle Words, Kindly Spoken - David C. Pike, Choir & Organ, July/August 2016
Homegrown Plus: Shaker Spirituals in Maine - Library of Congress Blog, April 2023
The Last of the Shakers? - Monica Wood, Downeast Magazine, October 2014
”Let’s Mingle Our Feelings”: Gender and Collectivity in the Music of the Shaker West - Carol Medlicott, Commonplace, Winter, 2013
The Rhythms of Shaker Dance Marked the Shakers as “Other” - Elizabeth Freeman, JSTOR, August 21, 2019
Shining Tree of Life - Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, February 13, 2006
A 21st Century Shaker Story - Gillian Graham, Portland Press Herald, July 4, 2021
Why the Legacy of Shakers Will Endure - by Joanne M. Pierce, January 18, 2017
VIDEO
Shaker Spirituals in Maine: Brother Arnold Hadd, Kevin Siegfried, and Radiance. Homegrown Concert from the Library of Congress.
Shakerism 101: Lecture by Brother Arnold Hadd
The Shakers (1974) - A film by Tom Davenport.
The Shakers (1984) - A film by Ken Burns and Amy Stechler Burns.
The Shakers of Sabbathday Lake - A short introduction video made by Chilton Furniture.
SHAKER SITES AND MUSEUMS
Shaker Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)
Maine
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village - the only active Shaker community in the world today
Massachusetts
Hancock Shaker Village
New Hampshire
Canterbury Shaker Village
Enfield Shaker Museum
New York
Shaker Heritage Society
Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon
Kentucky
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill
South Union Shaker Village
SHAKER MUSIC BOOKS
I am indebted to the musicologists and historians Daniel Patterson, Harold Cook, Roger Hall, Christian Goodwillie, Mary Ann Haagen, and Carol Medlicott. Their scholarship, publications, and ongoing work have been an inspiration and made the massive field of Shaker music more transparent to negotiate.
The Shaker Spiritual by Daniel Patterson. The definitive resource on Shaker music.
The Gift to Be Simple: Songs, Dances and Rituals of the American Shakers by Edward Deming Andrews.
Shaker Music: A Manifestation of American Folk Culture by Harold Cook.
Millennial Praises: A Shaker Hymnal ed. by Christian Goodwillie and Jane F. Crosthwaite.
A Shaker Musical Legacy by Robert and Viola Opdahl.
Shaker Songs: A Celebration of Peace, Harmony, and Simplicity by Christian Goodwillie.
Love Is Little: A Sampling of Shaker Spirituals by Roger Hall.
Partake a Little Morsel by Carol Medlicott.
Two hymnals originally published at Mt. Lebanon, NY - “Original Shaker Music, Vol. I & II” - have been reprinted by the Sabbathday Lake Shakers and are available through their online store.
SHAKER MUSIC RECORDINGS
Early Shaker Spirituals. Sister R. Mildred Barker and members of The United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
Gentle Words: Shaker Songs Arranged by Kevin Siegfried. The Tudor Choir; Doug Fullington, director.
The Golden Harvest: More Shaker Chants and Spirituals. The Boston Camerata, Harvard University Choir, Youth Pro Musica, and the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake; Joel Cohen, director.
I Am Filled With Heavenly Treasures. Enfield Shaker Singers: Mary Ann Haagen, director.
Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals. Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Schola Cantorum and The Boston Camerata; Joel Cohen, director.
SHAKER HISTORY
Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress ed. by Jean McMahon Humez.
Growing Up Shaker by Sister Frances A. Carr.
Historical Dictionary of the Shakers by Stephen J. Paterwic.
Honorable Harvest: Shakers and the Natural World by Carl Benton Straub.
Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shaker Ingenuity by M. Stephen Miller.
Issachar Bates: A Shaker’s Journey by Carol Medlicott.
One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793-1865 by Glendyne R. Wergland.
The People Called Shakers by Edward D. Andrews.
Richard McNemar, Music, and the Western Shaker Communities by Carol Medlicott and Christian Goodwillie.
The Shaker Experience in America by Stephen J. Stein.
Shaker Fever: America’s Twentieth-Century Fascination with a Communitarian Sect by William D. Moore.
Shaker Vision: Seeing Beauty in Early America by Joseph Manca.
The Shakers and the World’s People by Flo Morse.
Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes by Glendyne R. Wergland.
SHAKER STUDIES
Who are the Shakers? - Primary and Secondary Source Materials compiled by Enfield Shaker Museum
Guide to Museums and Libraries for Shaker Research compiled by Enfield Shaker Museum