Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“Virtual Communities”: The Anarchist Press At Home, Washington, Holly Folk

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Mutual Home Colony Association was a freethinking (anarchist) community that operated from 1898-1919. Located twelve miles across the bay from Tacoma, Washington, Home was reachable only by boat. Despite its remote location, the colony stayed connected to the greater world of Progressive Era radicalism through the publication of several newspapers. For some of these few if any issues survive. Extant print runs of two papers, however, illuminate both the daily life of the Home community and its ties to other expressions of cultural dissent.

A great many intentional communities have published community newspapers, which appear to serve multiple functions. …

Insights Into Harvard Shaker History, Michael Volmar

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Sometimes an object can provide a unique point of reference for understanding a particular period of time. Such is the case of a desk that was made by Harvard Shaker Alfred Collier for the long-standing village ministry leader Grove Blanchard in 1861. The 1820s to the 1860s were arguably the “golden age” for the Harvard Shakers. The rich documents that have survived from that period in archives around the region, including at Fruitlands, provide valuable insights into the social dynamics within the village. The Harvard and Shirley journals are particularly fruitful in illuminating the daily routines within these villages, and …

“Father Retains His Love Of Shakerdom”: The Journals Of Wendell P. Elkins, 1874-1929, Galen Beale

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In 2012, a set of forty-eight journals which followed the life of Wendell Elkins until his death, were donated to the Andover (N.H.) Historical Society. Written by the son of a Shaker apostate, these journals provide a new look at how the relationship between the Shakers and their former Believers had evolved by the late nineteenth century. The earlier, stricter edicts separating Believers and apostates had softened with time. The Elkins family’s relationship with the Enfield, New Hampshire, Shakers was neither combative nor dismissive, but rather, kind and loving. The journals’ many Shaker-related stories which are extracted here give credence …

The Role Of Women In Hopedale, A Nineteenth-Century Universalist-Unitarian Utopian Community In South-Central Massachusetts, Deirdre Corcoran Stam

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In the communal Massachusetts society known as Hopedale, existing formally from 1841 to 1856, women were granted an extraordinary range of rights comparable to those enjoyed by men, including holding office, owning property, and enjoying civil protection even within marriage. Women played a major role in civic engagement and intellectual life. The progressive role for women’s rights took place among a group of people who, unlike inhabitants of contemporary Fruitlands and Brook Farm utopian experiments, were described by Hopedale Community head Adin Ballou as “poor, and comparatively unlearned.” Vestiges of community values were perceptible a century later long after the …

Tyringham By The Numbers, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Census information for the Tyringham Shakers from 1790 to 1875.

Tyringham Fact Sheet, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Greatest Mystery Of The Tyringham Shakers Unmasked, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Though Shakers lived at Tyringham from 1780 until 1875, the most well-known event of its history is the departure of twenty- three members in 1858. The purpose of this article is to fully discuss the departures of 1858 and for the first time discover the true nature of the incident. In addition, by placing this event in its proper context, other valuable insights can be gained about Tyringham Shaker history as well about Shakerism as a whole.

The Tyringham Shakers, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Those writing about the Shakers during the last forty years, with one exception, seem content to give Tyringham just a cursory glance and then dismiss it. This has created a situation in Shaker studies akin to a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Since so little is known, it is easier to move on to the more famous Shaker settlements to study their people, artifacts, trade, etc. This has caused Tyringham to be perpetually relegated to the sidelines. The ninety-five-year history of the Shakers in Tyringham remains as shadowy as the hillsides they lived on.

It is the goal of this work to provide …

Necrology For The Shaker Society At Tyringham, Massachusetts, Stephen J. Paterwic

American Communal Societies Quarterly

A list of deaths for the Tyringham Shakers with annotations.

Magnetism Among The Shakers, C. M. Sedgwick

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The article reprinted from the May 1849, issue of Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art (volume 4, no. 5, pages [337]-38) records a particularly personal account of a visit by a long-time Shaker to the home of an old friend. The Shaker brother had been a member of an unnamed Shaker village for forty years and had joined with his wife and two children. He describes how his daughter left the faith and married and how his wife soon joined the daughter in the World. The son then apostasized, leaving the father alone with the Shakers. The account describes …

A Comparison Of The Shaker Medicinal Herb Industries In Mount Lebanon And Groveland, New York, Paige Cross

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The first Shaker herbal businesses began in 1821 in Harvard, Massachusetts, and New Lebanon, New York, out of both necessity and opportunity. The Shakers became highly respected in the medicinal community, and they earned a level of trust that remained unrivaled throughout their existence. In this paper I will compare medicinal preparations from manuscript recipe books compiled at the New Lebanon and Groveland settlements.

Oneida Community Gender Relations—In Context And Over Time, Anthony Wonderley

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Oneida Community was controversial in its day, especially on the subjects of gender relations, sex, and the standing of women. Those topics continue to attract scholarly interest today. While this essay travels much the same ground, it reconsiders gender relations at Oneida in a different light. Mine is an interpretive framework embracing not only Noyes’ doctrine and Community members’ views, but also the material setting of Community life—some basic economic and physical circumstances of their existence—and how their lives changed over the course of three decades. Two eras of work organization are distinguished here because each involved different relations …