This humble volume – A Concise Statement of the Principles of the Only True Church …— is one of fewer than a dozen surviving copies of the Shakers’ first printed publication and their first publication of their basic beliefs. It is a modest pamphlet of only 24 print...

In the 1870s, the leadership of the Shakers struggled with a growing problem: the taking and keeping of photographs. The question of whether or when it was appropriate for Believers to own photographs illustrates the particular challenges confronting the leaders of a communal...