Sunday Morning

Silent Saturday

Can you identify this?

If you can, then chances are you're either (a) old, or (b) a computer geek, or possibly even an old computer geek. It's a punchcard, what we used to communicate with computers back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

I came across it recently while checking some facts for my series on Shaker sites. I found it hiding between the pages of The People Called Shakers by Edward Deming Andrews. Inside the front cover was a return address sticker we'd used to identify ownership of the book. It listed the address of the house we rented while I was a graduate student. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

A Visitor's Guide to Shaker sites

If there is anyone still with me after my extensive Shaker tour, thank you for sticking it out. What? You now want to go off on a visit of your own? Need help deciding where to go? Of the 19 communities begun by the Shakers, only nine welcome visitors today. Assuming you only want to visit one or two, here are my suggestions.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, KY.  Founded 1814, closed 1910. Being our nearest and most-familiar site (we've been supporting members more than 30 years), I was careful about ranking it first. Several factors contribute to that ranking, not the least of which is their overnight lodging. Visitors stay in historic buildings in modernized (i.e., individual bathrooms) rooms fitted with Shaker reproduction furniture. A museum for more than 45 years, they have operations well honed. Four family sites are preserved and a varied interpretive program makes repeat visits as interesting as the first.

Canterbury, New Hampshire. Founded 1793, closed 1992 (date last resident died). Canterbury is a very important site, and preserves more of the complexity of a Shaker village than the others. They began operating as a museum while there were Shakers still in residence. They have an excellent food service and museum store, but do not have overnight lodging. So visitors miss out on a key part of the Shaker experience.

Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Founded 1790, closed 1960. Another mature museum, they do just about everything well. They have food service, but they have no overnight lodging. The Round Stone Barn, the Church Family Dwelling, and the Moses Johnson Meeting House are some of the very finest examples of Shaker architecture that exist.

Any of my top three picks will provide an excellent introduction to Shaker history, life, and art. A choice can safely be based on proximity and convenience. Each offers plenty to encourage repeat visits, as well. Those who become serious students of Shaker will want to visit the other six, especially South Union Shaker Museum, Auburn, KY (top photo; founded 1811, closed 1922), and Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village, New Lebanon, New York (founded 1787, closed 1947). Mt. Lebanon has the potential for joining the top ranking once the Shaker Museum and Library finishes restoring the North Family site and establishes their full operation there.

Tomorrow it's on to other things.

No photographs, please!

I promised a rant on this subject a few days ago. This is it, so please feel free to skip this post.

There is a common misconception that the light from flash units leads to premature fading of pigments. And this is the excuse you most often hear at museums. It simply isn't true. Modern flash units have extremely short flash duration, typically in the range of 1/1000 second. And the energy contained in a flash (or any radiation, for that matter) decreases by the square of the distance traveled. Think about it. How much energy is released by a flash unit? How much actually reaches the surface of concern? How does that compare with normal interior lighting? How does it compare with light coming in through windows? It simply doesn't compute. If there were a constant barrage of simultaneous and continuous flashes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then perhaps there might be some validity to the argument. But that's very unlikely to happen.

So how did this get started? In the early days of popular flash photography we used flash bulbs. It was not at all uncommon for a bulb to shatter when flashed. The broken glass could be, and was, a hazard. Later bulbs were encased in a clear plastic coating, so shattering was much less common. Still the prohibition persisted, even into the era of electronic flash units, which never shatter.

So why prohibit all photography? There is one (possibly) legitimate reason. That is economic. If a museum sells images of its collections, then allowing visitors to take their own photographs might cut into their profits. Or, they may wish to charge a fee to allow photography. If they don't sell images and they don't sell licenses, then it's just plain being mean spirited.

That's my opinion.

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

One's first reaction on arriving at the last active Shaker Village is "It's so small!" It's barely bigger than a lot of family farms, if that. But it's home to the last practicing members of the United Society; five Shakers and two novitiates. They conduct services in their 1794 Moses Johnson meeting house every Sunday in summer, and continue to welcome the world to their services. Winter services are held in a chapel in the dwelling across the road. According to our tour guide, services no longer include the dances and marches so long associated with Shakers, but consist of songs, readings from the Bible, and reactions to the readings and testimonials.

As you enter the parking lot you are greeted with a sign in front of what you later learn is the herb house that proclaims "PRIVATE beyond this point. Car Exit Only." Being the home of the remaining Shakers, there are few places the visitor can go without a tour guide. Our tour guide did an excellent job, however, and we did get to see several of the buildings.

The tour starts in the Boy's Shop, where young boys were taught trades. There are museum exhibits here as well. But again, no interior photos were allowed. There are more museum exhibits in the Spin Shop next door.

The tour took us into the meeting house, which looks nearly the same as the Hancock meeting house, plus we got to see the second floor living quarters that the ministry once occupied. It is furnished with appropriate Shaker antiques, but no photography was allowed. Our tour guide reminded me of that fact frequently, since I still had my camera with me. On the return walk we got to visit the sisters' shop while there was a lull in the day's work there.

The sisters' shop is home to the village's herb industry and the smells were delightful.

After the short tour I wandered around outside the quarantine area, first to the barns. They certainly say "Maine'" don't they?

From there I walked up to the road to get a shot of the dwelling. Always the smallest of the Shaker communities, it reached a peak of around 200 shortly after its founding in 1783. That number had dwindled to around 150 during the time before the Civil War when the Shaker movement was at its height. From that point there has been a steady decline, as in other Shaker communities.

Our visit concluded at the Trustees' Office, which today still operates a store. Here my wife bought a few "stocking stuffers" for Christmas, plus a couple of items for our granddaughter that won't wait until Christmas.

I can imagine the stresses to residents of having their home open to tourists, and the need to exercise control over movement on the site. The tour guides are volunteers, not Shakers, and the two we encountered were knowledgeable and courteous. One was borderline paranoid about the possibility of pictures being taken inside buildings. Since I don't agree with that policy, and photographs are a large part of my reason for visiting in the first place, I found that annoying. Perhaps she had just recently been taken to the whipping shed for not being diligent.

Sunday Morning