Shaker Scholars...

Because of the slow internet at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough Ma (hard to understand as it sits right next to Cisco); I didn’t get to do any blog posting this week while at seminar.  Hubby and I have arrived home this evening and over the next few days, I’ll post a few photos and comments.  For now, here’s many of the attendees in front of the Harvard Shaker Meeting House, now a private home.  Thank you to the owner for a closer look at a spectacular historical building!

Lunch spread...

We enjoyed a pot-luck feast of several salads, turkey breast and amazing desserts!

You’ll see from previous posts that hubby and I generally attend the Shaker Seminar each summer.  There’s much to learn about this quite unknown slice of American history – there’s so many aspects: theology, history, communal living, business aspects and more.  (I’m not even going to list furniture – which is what I think everyone thinks of when they hear the word Shakers.)

As a college instructor, I often give students the advice of forming a study group.  Study groups are known to increase the likelihood of retention of information.  And, at the college level it helps form friendships – some  will become life-long.

This study group (about 40 strong) all have different interests in the Shakers; but all have a love of learning more and sharing that knowledge.  And, for hubby and I, a comradery in learning — talking and sharing knowledge on a subject of passion is a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Try it sometime!

We are attending the 2010 Shaker Seminar being hosted this year at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA. It is the village’s 50th year as a museum, and extra attention is being paid to this important moment in their history.

The lectures are on the whole very interesting; and as usual the people who attend are fascinating, generous, and incredibly knowledgeable about all things Shaker.

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It was an active day on our feet,

but we are enjoying, as we always do, many wonderful conversations and discussions with new comers and “old” attendees.

A photo of the outside and one space inside the Great Stone Dwelling:

This is the organist inside the chapel next to the Great Stone Dwelling, as well as hubby enjoying the music in beautiful surroundings (for info on how the dwelling and chapel are “related,” follow the links).

Hubby and I are attending the Shaker Spring Forum this weekend being hosted by Enfield Shaker Museum.  If you’ve read my blog previously, you know that this is a scholarly hobby we share.  We attend a few events every year; and never fail to learn something of interest about these very interesting people.

The weekend began last night with a guided tour of their current exhibit, "Shaker Yokefellows: Enfield Shakers from Vermont."  For Robert Frost enthusiasts, you’ll be able to figure out where the title of the exhibit is derived.   Then a fabulous dinner!

Today was six presentations: very high quality scholarship and presentations.  The topics covered were gendered landscape, Canterbury leadership, the relationship between Shaker women and the girls they cared for, cooperage at Enfield, the story of Eunice Chapman and her child, and wonderful Shaker music.  (Tomorrow when I get home, I’ll post some photos:  I forgot the cable to upload them (of course!)). For a more detailed description, go to the Enfield website and you’ll find a pdf with the details.

The evening ended with another fabulous Shaker dinner with a story teller – Rebecca Rule -  regaling us with stories of New Hampshire — creatively, with some success, related to the lives and times of the Shakers.   Both dinners come from Eldress Bertha: my favorite, no surprise, being desert tonight:  chocolate zucchini cake a la mode.  A recipe I’ve used several times at home.

There’s a presentation and tour tomorrow morning and lunch before we head home.  It’s a bit tiring but a wonderful way to spend a weekend away.

I’ve just finished reading My Father’s House: An Oneida Boyhood by Pierrepont B. Noyes. It was written as a memoir – I expect it might be selling more now than when first published as it seems memoirs are all I see in bookstores these days (I’m much fonder of reading biographies.)

You find out in the Afterword that it was written when he was 67. Mr. Noyes was born in 1870, and was about 10 when the communal experiment broke up. Although I was surprised to discover in this book, and during our visit, that members continued to live in the Mansion house, and descendants still do.

It is a sweet book, written, as memoirs always seem to be, with hindsight and a bit of romanticism about the past. We all, I think, remember the best of our childhood first, don’t we? But as a first exposure to the community, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more.  What is interestingly missing, for me, is that Mr. Noyes does not discuss at all the experiment of stirpiculture of which he was one of the offspring.  At least as far I could find, he does not mention it at all.

At this link you’ll find another interesting review of it – actually if you Google it, there does seem to be quite a few of academic reviews not accessible without going through a library.

If you’re interesting in communal societies, or just want a quick memoir to read, it’s worth your time.