Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Selections From The Miller Collection, M. Stephen Miller

American Communal Societies Quarterly

We asked Steve Miller to identify some personal favorites from his collection and relate the story of their acquisiton or significance.

The Miller Collection Comes To Hamilton College Library, M. Stephen Miller

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In early December 2011, lawyers representing Hamilton College drew up contracts detailing the transfer by sale and by gift of my wife’s and my collection of printed materials—an important part of the Miller Collection—to the college’s library. The collection is composed of more than 14,000 individual pieces of Shaker “ephemera.” This brief essay will outline what the collection consists of, how it came to be formed, and of greatest importance, why it will find a new home in Clinton, New York.

Johann Christoph Müller: Harmonist Pioneer, Composer, And Apostate, Emily Lapisardi

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Johann Christoph Müller, a physician who served George Rapp’s Harmony Society as “doctor, music director, schoolteacher, printer, archivist, [and] museum curator,” was both a member of Rapp’s elite inner circle and a dissenting voice within the Society. Documentary evidence reveals flares of conflict between Müller and Rapp predating their immigration and culminating in Müller’s departure in the Schism of 1832, yet Müller was also a trusted Harmonist leader and one of an advance party of five men who came to the United States to prepare the way for the mass immigration of Rapp’s Separatists. Although some scholars have defined Müller …

The Richmond Family And The Shakers, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The latter years of the Enfield, Connecticut, Shaker Society have correctly been associated with the large and dominant Copley and Lyman families. Almost forgotten, however, are the Richmonds. This is unfortunate as it was through the Richmonds that the Copleys came to be Shakers. In addition, the last Enfield eldress, Caroline Tate (1859–1937), whose mother was a Richmond, far outlived all of the Lymans and Copleys that remained in the faith. Knowing the story of this family is important not just to add information to Enfield, Connecticut, Shaker history, but also because it offers a very rich glimpse into the …

Daniel Pierce Thompson And “The Shaker Lovers”: Portraying The Shakers In Fiction And On The Stage, Brian L. Bixby, Jill Mudgett

American Communal Societies Quarterly

When Vermont author D. P. Thompson’s short story “The Shaker Lovers” was first published in the periodical The New World in 1841, it joined a growing body of literature on American Shaker communities. However, Thompson’s story was unusual in three ways. First, it was the product of a man whose upbringing and opinions gave him a unique perspective on the Shakers. Second, it was a fictional literary treatment of the Shakers, of which there had been very few up to that date. And last, Thompson’s story was destined to be turned into a stage play, albeit one with a somewhat …

“The Mighty Hand Of Overruling Providence”: The Shaker Claim To America, Jane F. Crosthwaite

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Shakers, with all their idiosyncratic ideas of millennialism, of celibacy, of separation, and of communal property, worked hard to position themselves as the fulfillment of God’s plan for salvation made possible through the establishment of a non-coercive political system where they could live freely, oppose slavery, and encourage pacifism. The Shakers drew on common patriotic themes which stressed a divine plan for America, but they extended their reach by way of distinctive theological analyses which were neither superficial nor merely occasional. Their claims appeared in history texts, hymn verses, visionary manifestations, new sacred texts, and, even, a gift drawing. …

A Treasury Of Shaker Ephemera Rediscovered At The Western Reserve Historical Society, Christian Goodwillie

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Photographs of rare (and in some cases probably unknown) Shaker ephemera from the uncataloged collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

The Shakers In Eighteenth-Century Newspapers, Part Three: “Calvin” Versus “A Lover Of Truth,” Abusing Caleb Rathbun, The Death Of Joseph Meacham And The Tale Of His Sister, Christian Goodwillie

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Accounts of the Shakers in eighteenth-century American newspapers help to shed light on the murky early history of the sect in the United States. They range from openly hostile to mildly sympathetic, and often provide details about the Shakers and Shaker life that are not found in the sect’s relatively meager eighteenth-century manuscript record. This article, the third and final in a series, will examine newspaper items relevant to the Shakers in the extraordinarily busy news years of 1796 and 1797.

Brother Ricardo Belden Revisited, Magda Gabor-Hotchkiss

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In a recent issue of this journal, Darryl Charles Thompson provided an account of a “spirit song” presented in the Meeting House at Canterbury Shaker Village during the mid-1980s by his father, Charles “Bud” Thompson. The elder Mr. Thompson learned this song directly from Brother Ricardo Belden, then a resident of the Hancock Shakers’ Church Family. We acknowledge with pleasure the opportunity that his essay provided to share some treasured images from the collections of the Hancock Shaker Village Library, as well as to present additional information about Brother Ricardo’s life, his influence on musicologists and dance designers, and his …

The Amana Church Society: Community, Continuity And Change, Peter Hoehnle

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In 2014 the Amana Church Society will celebrate its three-hundredth anniversary. Of the large American communal societies visited by Charles Nordhoff for his book, The Communistic Societies of the United States, published in 1874, the Inspirationists of Amana are the only group besides the Shakers that still exists as a religious organization.

The Amana Church Society remains an active and vital part of the Amana community. Adult membership stands at approximately 375 people. Ten lay elders conduct regular weekly worship services and special services, and officiate at funerals and weddings. My wife, Elly, and I approach the Amana Church …