The Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” was not widely known before American composer Aaron Copeland used the tune to score choreographer Martha Graham’s 1944 ballet Appalachian Spring. The song, however, was certainly popular among the Shakers – having been recorded in at...

The Shakers have had a relationship with coffee throughout their history – from the object at hand, a coffee mill thought to date from 1776, to the large pot of coffee kept brewing in the Sabbathday Lake dining room for the current Shaker family, their staff, and guests i...