In Simple Gifts, June Sprigg tells the story of one of America's last Shaker communities--Canterbury Shaker Village, in Canterbury, New Hampshire--during its twilight years, and of its seven remarkable "survivor" women, who were among the last representatives of our longest-lived and best-known communal utopian society. As a college student Sprigg spent a summer among them, and here she gracefully interweaves the narrative of their lives with the broader history of Shakers in America as she shows us how her experiences there affected her own life and opened the door to her creativity. Gleaning information from old records and journals that she pored over that summer and later, Sprigg brings to life the generations of Canterbury Shakers from the eighteenth century to the present--their customs, their architecture, their spirituality. She also explores the social and cultural forces and the internal imperatives and tensions that caused membership to decrease, all of which, by 1972, brought the community to crisis. Chronicling the daily life of the village as she found it, Sprigg uncovers the affirming energies of the Shakers--the prominence of mutual love and respect, the devoted tradition of mothering surrogate children, and, above all, the surviving women's spirited eccentricities. She reveals the Shakers as individuals--their personal histories, their wildly different beginnings, what they gave up to join the Shaker community, and, more important, what they gained. Through her lively text and drawings and her intimate connection with the community, Sprigg brings us close to its people with a book that both enlightens and inspires.
Having lived and worked with surviving Shakers of Maine and New Hampshire, June Sprigg has drawn objects from forty collections to celebrate the Shaker tradition.
Photography. Fifty-eight photographs by Linda Butler and a superb text by June Sprigg, author of By Shaker Hands, reveal and pay tribute to the elegance of line, the magnificent craftsmanship, the realms of stillness and light, the vision and spiritual serenity that are the Shaker legacy. The photographs range in subject from a bonnet in an oval box to a spiral staircase, a laundry room, a songbook, a cupboard, a washstand, and a cupola. In them, the quality and play of light--light endlessly altering the look of places and things--expresses the sustaining harmony and grace of the Shaker way of being. "(Butler's) exquisitely composed studies of stairways, windows, furniture, houses and field convey with loving regard and exactitude their subjects' `inner light'"--Publishers Weekly.
The Shaker movement in America began in 1774 when Mother Ann Lee emigrated from Manchester, England, with a small group of followers, and settled in New York State. Despite impoverished beginnings, the Shakers flourished in the early nineteenth century, and by 1840 there were four to six thousand members living in eighteen principal communities from Maine to Kentucky. Turning away from society, they lived in large families that were both celibate and communal. In striving for heaven on earth, they created a visual environment of such harmony and quiet power that it continues to impress observers today, when the Shakers have all but passed from the American scene. The many works presented in this beautiful volume reveal the Shaker commitment to excellence in all matters. The chairs, cases of drawers, work stands, baskets, oval boxes, wheelbarrows, stoves, looms, and even tailoring tools have a purity of form that transcends mere utility and elevates our appreciation of the object beyond a sense of function. June Sprigg, who has lived and worked with the surviving Shakers of Maine and New Hampshire, has studied Shaker life and art since 1972. For this volume she has drawn objects from forty collections, including extant Shaker villages, the work of some thirty known individuals, and as many artists who remain anonymous. Book jacket.
In Simple Gifts, June Sprigg tells the story of one of America's last Shaker communities--Canterbury Shaker Village, in Canterbury, New Hampshire--during its twilight years, and of its seven remarkable "survivor" women, who were among the last representatives of our longest-lived and best-known communal utopian society. As a college student Sprigg spent a summer among them, and here she gracefully interweaves the narrative of their lives with the broader history of Shakers in America as she shows us how her experiences there affected her own life and opened the door to her creativity. Gleaning information from old records and journals that she pored over that summer and later, Sprigg brings to life the generations of Canterbury Shakers from the eighteenth century to the present--their customs, their architecture, their spirituality. She also explores the social and cultural forces and the internal imperatives and tensions that caused membership to decrease, all of which, by 1972, brought the community to crisis. Chronicling the daily life of the village as she found it, Sprigg uncovers the affirming energies of the Shakers--the prominence of mutual love and respect, the devoted tradition of mothering surrogate children, and, above all, the surviving women's spirited eccentricities. She reveals the Shakers as individuals--their personal histories, their wildly different beginnings, what they gave up to join the Shaker community, and, more important, what they gained. Through her lively text and drawings and her intimate connection with the community, Sprigg brings us close to its people with a book that both enlightens and inspires.
Having lived and worked with surviving Shakers of Maine and New Hampshire, June Sprigg has drawn objects from forty collections to celebrate the Shaker tradition.
From 19th-century Shaker communities came beautifully crafted buildings, furniture, tools, and other artifacts admired throughout the world. In the tradition of its bestselling predecessor Shaker: Life, Work, and Art, this book evokes the very special flavor of the Shaker way of life. 52 full-color illustrations.
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