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Shaker Seminar 2008 – Day Four

July 26th, 2008 · Shaker, Site Seeing, travel

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Our day started with a two hour bus ride to Sodus Bay to see what is left of a community that resided there for a short time — staying (I think I have this right) about 10 years starting in 1826.

seminar4b.jpg There are only three original buildings left on the site — the land has been privately owned since then. It is now an animal rescue operation. This picture is the Shaker built barn.

seminar4c.jpg This is the back of the dwelling house, located in front of the barn.

seminar4d.jpg I’m not sure I’ve gotten his name correctly – but this is the current owner – Griff who gave us a history of the property. We are sitting on the front porch of the dwelling house. I believe he said his grandfather purchased the property about 1930.

seminar4e.jpg This is inside the dwelling house -his private home – the numbering of the rooms in place since the Shakers resided there still in evidence. The staircase and rail were original as well. There were three floors, and some peg rails and a room set up with Shaker items; but I wasn’t sure how many of them were authentic.

seminar4f.jpg After lunch, we sat in a room in the corner of another barn on the farm and heard: “Putting Sodus Shaker Village on the Map” presented by Walter Brumm. A very fascinating history using maps of how this particular site was acquired and settled and some of the mysteries Mr. Brumm is attempting to solve about buildings they lived and worked in, as well as some interesting place name challenges.

seminar4h.jpg After a 2 hour bus ride back, and dinner in the Science Center Atrium, the traditional evening gathering and trading session took place in one of the dorm lounges. Here hubby and a participant are working on the accurate placement of one of the communities on www.Shakertown.net

And, one last picture just because I love clouds and it’s been a week of on and off rain storms, a beautiful evening shot of the sky above Hamilton.

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Shaker Seminar 2008 – Day Three

July 25th, 2008 · My Goals, Shaker, travel

What a great day! Sitting and listening at conferences is always somehow wearying and exhilarating at the same time!

Today’s lectures started with two that were really a pair as they were presented by the authors of a great new book about a particular Shaker collector couple:

Book: Gather up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection by Mario S. De Pillis and Christian Goodwillie

The lecture by Professor De Pillis shared with us the aspects of how this collection and this couple became a turning point of the culture of Shakers being recognized as important to historians and collectors. The second half given by Mr. Goodwillie focused on the relationship between the Shaker community of Hancock and the Andrews. It’s too complicated to explain here, but I’ll quote from page 52 a passage by Professor De Pillis “As an old friend of the Andrews and as a fellow board member at Hancock Shaker Village, Inc., I accepted the invitation to write this essay as a moral duty: to cut through the gossip and amateurism of the so-called World of Shaker and provide a sympathetic but objective account of the Andrews and their collection.”

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In addition to the two essays, there is another by M. Stephen Miller, as well as dozens of pages of photographs of beautiful artifacts, furniture, tools and more that the Andrews collected, thus “saving a culture.”

The afternoon sessions were as follows:

Put a Cap on It: Chastity and the Shaker Cap by Glendyne Wergland, and

Zion’s Travelers: Traveling to the Shaker West by Carol Medlicott.

I do a dis-service to any of these researchers by attempting to summarize their work. If you are interested in more, let me know or contact Hancock Shaker Village. It is my understanding that there may be some proceedings published afterwards; or perhaps they can provide a way for you to contact the presenters.

I’ve been interested for a long time in the children brought up by the Shakers, and I continue to scribble notes and give it a bit of thought about how to go about focusing my interest. This summer I read a history of education (sorry I don’t have that reference with me at the moment) and I’m very interested in the mid-1800s in terms of how schooling was changing and thus changing the lives of how children were educated. Maybe one day I’ll have enough information and research under my belt to actually write an article! For now, I’ll keep reflecting and keeping notes about how to think about it!

And, of course, at seminar:

we eat: seminar3b.jpg

we sing:seminar3e.jpg

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and greatly enjoy one another’s company!

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Shaker Seminar 2008 – Day Two

July 24th, 2008 · Shaker

What a long, interesting and educational day!

After a continental breakfast in the dorms (I always wish there was protein at American continental breakfasts), we headed off to the library at Hamilton College (a short walk up the hill). There we enjoyed a presentation of the Shaker holdings by Randy Ericson. We saw some really incredible books: one we were told is still used today by those living in community at Sabbathday Lake.

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A fairly short bus ride to the Oneida Community Mansion House was next where we had a brief overview of the place by the Director there before enjoying a bit over an hour to self-tour the facility. I had heard of this community but knew nothing about it. The hour to explore on our own was not at all enough, so I expect we’ll plan a trip back one day.seminar2c.jpg

This is a photo of the Mansion from a flower garden .

After a nice lunch at the restaurant that leases space there, we had two lectures;

Twin Visions: Shkers and the Oneida Community by Giles Wayland Smith

What’s Love Got to Do with It?: The Oneida Community 1838-1881 by Peter Hoehnle

After a bus ride back, and about 45 minutes to recuperate, have a snack, we were off to another great dinner and a sort of second half of the library presentation. The Hamilton Library has put a lot of its rare collections in digital format.

There is always time between lectures and at meals plenty of time to talk and enjoy other participants’ company. The Seminar has been held every year since since 1975, and there are some participants who have attended all of them! There are also folks who are new or semi-new, and come from all over the United States. I think sometimes there are people from other countries, but I don’t think there are this year. The participants have a wide variety of interests in the Shakers: there are academic folks doing research on various aspects of the communities and/or the Shakers themselves, collectors of various types of objects, history buffs, planned community enthusiasts, and this trip we met a writer working on a novel. There are about 50 participants it seems this year.

Our interest is varied. We don’t have a special area that fascinates us (of course, loving old books, we would love to own a few, but the prices are way beyond our interests – and actually we would never be able to keep objects that we feel belong in museums anyways). I think it mostly harkens back to 1973 when we took our honeymoon trip across the US (either 7000 miles in 8 weeks, or 8 thousand in 7 – we can never remember which) when we visited many planned communities – called communes then! — hopeing that we would find one to live in and raise our children in. I was also raised in Watervliet, NY the place the Shakers settled in the New World, and was aware of it at some point in my childhood. It is really an interesting way to spend time together as a couple and indulge our fascination with history as well.

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Shaker Seminar – Day 1

July 23rd, 2008 · Itinerary, Shaker, Site Seeing, travel

Today we enjoyed breakfast at our B&B – The Phoenix Inn – and then made our way to the Fenimore Art Museum. There was a fascinating exhibit of Jewish immigrant wood carvers of the early 20th century in New York showing their work both of carousel horses and Torah arks for synagogues: fascinating. And an interesting exhibit of Stickly furniture as well as folk art and other Americana.N

It was a dreary rainy drive to Hamilton college. The usual start to any conference: check-in, see old acquaintances, find your room, and such. There was a nice dinner and the first lecture of the seminar.

First lecture: The New Virtual White Water Shaker Village: Shaping a Collaborative Network for Shaker History on the Web presented by Jose M. Kozan and Iara Beduschi Kozan

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A picture of us waiting for the speaker to set up and begin.

Below a photo of the presenter being introduced by Christian Goodwillie, curator at Hancock Shaker Village.

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We didn’t attend last year as it was held at the Shaker communities in Kentucky and it’s just too hot for me there! We attended our first Seminar in Kentucky in 2001 and although it was lovely and educational, the heat was more than awful and I hated it. So we chose not to endure the southern heat last year. So it’s especially nice to be in attendance this year. It’s different so far as it’s located on a college campus and not close to an actual Shaker site; but the lectures look to be very interesting.

Stay tuned! If you’d like a good place to start checking out Shaker resources, go to www.Shakertown.net

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Cottages, cats and dogs

July 22nd, 2008 · Uncategorized

Hubby and I left yesterday afternoon to take a short road trip on our way to Clinton, NY where Wednesday through Sunday we will be attending a Seminar on the Shakers.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed a beautiful drive across Western Mass down to Stockbridge where we visited Naumkeag. This is one of the famous “cottages” that dot the southern Hudson River valley. The famous staircase ss7.jpgthat I’ve been looking forward to seeing for several years is actually much smaller than I had imagined! But stunning none the less. The gardens are beautiful; especially the “Chinese” garden; most striking is that the gardens are green — there is not a huge assortment of color from flowers; the gardens are trees, shrubs, evergreens, ferns, hostas and such — quite striking.

Afterwards, we also visited the Mission House – an interesting stop on the Mohawk Native American history tour.

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in Claverack, NY – near Hudson NY – both towns we explored this morning.

Today we started our day with Olana, another so called cottage! By the way, Naumkeag built in the late 1890s cost about $45,000 (in today’s dollars) to build – and Olana built in 1860s cost $75,000. Having just come from exposure to a good deal of Moorish art, etc in Spain and Morocco, we thought the home fascinating but it certainly took a few liberties:) ss4.jpg

One of the stencils used around the doorways of one of the rooms looks to be written in Arabic (research shows it says nothing). But the house was beautiful with an amazing view of the river.

We then crossed the Hudson River via the Rip Van Winkle bridge and drove to Cooperstown, where we are staying tonight in a lovely Inn and have just returned from a nice evening in town eating dinner and catching a concert in the park.

Tomorrow we’ll go to the Fenimore Cooper Art Museum, and then drive to Hamilton College to begin our seminar.

Oh — what about the cats and dogs? Public art! Hudson had the dogs, and Catskill had the cats! Here’s a few pictures! (The dog picture is chosen for the grandbaby – who loves beads:)!)ss1.jpgss2.jpgss5.jpg

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