2021 marks the 35th anniversary of “Shaker Design,” a seminal exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The exhibition, drawing from 40 institutional and private collections, was intended, as was the Whitney’s exhibition “Shaker Handicrafts” in 1935,...

It is not unusual to find personal gifts given from one Shaker to another among the objects preserved in museums or kept in the Shaker community. Often these gifts were for members of the Shaker ministry or for family elders or eldresses. The exchange of gifts seems to have o...