Stereograph

Description

A traveler heading north through the Shaker Village at Mount Lebanon around 1870 would have seen these buildings arranged neatly along the road that lead to Lebanon Springs. Although this photograph may have been made prior to the Shaker Ministry's 1873 injunction for Shakers not to pose for pictures except "in scenery," one has to wonder if this is the kind of photograph that they were encouraging -- lots of buildings and landscape with a few Brothers of Sisters dotting the village to make it seem more alive. The Brothers standing on the right-hand side of the road had to have been asked to "hold still" while the photography was made or they would have been blurred -- and so what appears to be a casual "snapshot" was probably carefully posed.