From the Collections: Shakers and the New York State Museum
2024 marks the 250th anniversary of the Shakers coming to colonial America. The Shakers were a small sect of Quakers that started in Manchester, England in 1747. They were formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s First and Second Appearing. Because of the zealous fervor associated with their ritual dance, they were known as the “Shaking Quakers” or “Shakers.”
After migrating to New York in 1774, the Shakers became a communal Christian religious society that flourished in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Principles of their faith included celibacy, equality of the sexes, oral confessions of sins, pacifism, and withdrawal into their communities from the outside world.
The first American Shaker settlement was in Niskayuna (later called Watervliet), Albany County, NY. The second settlement was established in New Lebanon, Columbia County, where the first meeting house was constructed in 1784. Other Shaker communities were founded in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. At the movement’s height, its total population reached about 6,000 in 19 separate communities.
To mark this anniversary, the New York State Museum will post an artifact from its Shaker Collection each month.