Periodical

Description

Vol. XXXVII No. 944 issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. The cover illustration is an engraving titled, "The Welcome Frost." On page 124 is a full-sheet illustration titled "The Shakers of New Lebanon - Religious Exercises in the Meeting-House." The engraving shows a worship meeting at the 1824 meetinghouse of the Church Family at Mount Lebanon. Along the left wall are three rows of benches with male spectators at the foreground and the rest with sisters. At the center a large group of Shakers perform the Circle Dance consisting of four concentric circles of Shakers marching. The innermost and third circle are comprised of sisters, and the second and outer circles are comprised of brothers. Many of the brothers have their hands upraised, while the third circle of sisters have their hands raised or clasped and the innermost circle of sisters hold hymnals. Though the scene is shown to take place in the meetinghouse, public meeting was not held in the meetinghouse at that time and so Becker observed a meeting in the family dwelling house's meeting room. A journal kept by the ministry noted on March 6, 1870 that Becker and an editor for Leslie's went "to the North family to attend meeting this P.M, spend the evening there and are highly interested." Perhaps for this reason there are several errors in the depiction of the meetinghouse interior; the illustration omitted the louvered windows located high on the wall that were used by the ministry to observe the activities below, as well as a pair of full-height chimneys, and there are doors where there are windows on that same rear wall. The engraving also shows curved arm rests on the benches used by the spectators which were not present. The engraving shows two large Victorian parlor-style stoves at the rear; records indicate that the Shakers made several changes in how the building was heated. To learn more, read this blog post: https://www.shakermuseum.us/saga-heating-meetinghouse/

Notes

Becker visited the North and Church Families at Mount Lebanon in March of 1870. It was recorded in the Church Family record: "[March] 5 Sat.: One of the editors and one of the Artists of 'Leslie's Pictorial' of New York come here to make observations, take notes, make drawings, &c, &c, to publish concerning the Shakers." The engravings were not published until 1873, in a series of four installments over the course of ten months. The reason for the delay is not known, but it may have been in order to wait until more time had passed since the publication of Houghton's views of the Shakers in The Graphic in 1870.