Work room for Fancy Goods. Office Building, North Family, Mount Lebanon, 1888.
All Shakers were matched to some kind of handwork to benefit the community, and appropriate tasks were found for all whether they were young, old, male, female, sick, or healthy. Sisters often, though not always, tended to perform domestic chores – cooking, baking, washing and ironing, mending and tailoring, and housekeeping. They also spun fiber, wove cloth, and made knit-goods, bonnets, tablemats, and foodstuffs for sale to the public, an enterprise that was an important source of income.
The Civil War and increasing industrialization brought about a reduction in the number of men in Shaker communities, and the women took on more and more of the burden of manufacturing items for sale, practically creating factory systems in some communities.
Collections Manager
Sharon Duane Koomler is a Shaker scholar and traditional letterpress printer living in upstate New York. She has academic degrees in American Folklore from Indiana University and Western Kentucky University. Sharon has worked at Shaker Museums from Kentucky to New Hampshire as an educator, curator, consultant, and director. She has written and published on Shaker material culture and spirituality, and lectured widely on Shaker art, life, and belief. Sharon has a particular interest in the under-researched social aspects of Shaker life and ways in which Shakers practiced inclusion and intentionality.