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History of The Shakers

Shaker Museum elevates Shaker material culture to animate Shaker values and beliefs and inspire individuals and communities to deepen bonds and seek meaningful approaches to social, economic, environmental, and spiritual issues.

An old photo of a woman working on a chair.

Featured Blog Articles

A group of people standing on the steps of a house.
Devil in the details: Comparing photographic images
Since the invention of photography, decisions made by the photographer about printing and mounting affect the final appearance of the image, sometimes introducing variations in images made from the same negative.
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A wooden desk with drawers and drawers.
A sewing desk from a butternut springs
When doing an historic evaluation of something made by the Shakers, three questions are standard: Where was it made? When was it made? Who made it? The sewing desk discussed here provides answers to two of these questions. On the bottom of lowest right-hand drawer is wr...
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Sharon Koomler

Collections Manager

Sharon Duane Koomler is a Shaker scholar and traditional letterpress printer living in upstate New York. She has academic degrees in American Folklore from Indiana University and Western Kentucky University. Sharon has worked at Shaker Museums from Kentucky to New Hampshire as an educator, curator, consultant, and director. She has written and published on Shaker material culture and spirituality, and lectured widely on Shaker art, life, and belief. Sharon has a particular interest in the under-researched social aspects of Shaker life and ways in which Shakers practiced inclusion and intentionality.