List of Shaker inventions

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Round barn, Hancock Shaker Village Round barn, Hancock Shaker village.jpg
Round barn, Hancock Shaker Village

This article contains a list of inventions by the Shakers , officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance. Founded in the 18th century, the Shakers, a celibate sect who lived a communal lifestyle, were known for their many innovative creations in varied fields including agriculture, furniture, housework, and medicine.

Contents

Architecture

Food and agriculture

Shaker tilting chair Shaker tilting chair with swivels.jpg
Shaker tilting chair

Furniture

Medicine and healthcare

Tools and appliances

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakers</span> Christian monastic denomination

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded c. 1747 in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Espousing egalitarian ideals, women took on spiritual leadership roles alongside men, including founding leaders such as Jane Wardley, Ann Lee, and Lucy Wright. The Shakers emigrated from England and settled in Revolutionary colonial America, with an initial settlement at Watervliet, New York, in 1774. They practice a celibate and communal utopian lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, music, and furniture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broom</span> Cleaning tool for floor

A broom is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a variety of brush with a long handle. It is commonly used in combination with a dustpan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon copy</span> Copy of a document made by carbon paper

Before the development of photographic copiers, a carbon copy was the under-copy of a typed or written document placed over carbon paper and the under-copy sheet itself. When copies of business letters were so produced, it was customary to use the acronym "CC" or "cc" before a colon and below the writer's signature to inform the principal recipient that carbon copies had been made and distributed to the parties listed after the colon. With the advent of word processors and e-mail, "cc" is used as a merely formal indication of the distribution of letters to secondary recipients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret E. Knight</span> American inventor (1838–1914)

Margaret Eloise Knight was an American inventor, notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor". She founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870, creating paper bags for groceries similar in form to the ones that would be used in later generations. Knight received dozens of patents in different fields, and became a symbol for women's empowerment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodland Park Zoo</span> Zoo in Seattle, Washington, United States

Woodland Park Zoo is a wildlife conservation organization and zoological garden located in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. The zoo is the recipient of over 65 awards across multiple categories. The zoo has around 900 animals from 250 species and the zoo has over 1 million visitors a year.

<i>Cytisus scoparius</i> Ornamental broom shrub

Cytisus scoparius, the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for other members of the Genisteae tribe, such as French broom or Spanish broom; and the term common broom is sometimes used for clarification. In other English-speaking countries, the most common name is "Scotch broom" ; however, it is known as English broom in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleasant Hill, Kentucky</span> United States historic place

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, USA, is the site of a Shaker religious community that was active from 1805 to 1910. Following a preservationist effort that began in 1961, the site, now a National Historic Landmark, has become a popular tourist destination. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, or Shakertown, as it is known by residents of the area, is located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Lexington, in Kentucky's Bluegrass region. It is a National Historic Landmark District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Board of education</span> Board of directors, board of trustees of a school, local school district or equivalent

A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canterbury Shaker Village</span> United States historic place

Canterbury Shaker Village is a historic site and museum in Canterbury, New Hampshire, United States. It was one of a number of Shaker communities founded in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defunct townships of Cuyahoga County, Ohio</span>

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States is divided into 21 townships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hancock Shaker Village</span> United States historic place

Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker commune in Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It emerged in the towns of Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond in the 1780s, organized in 1790, and was active until 1960. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1774 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. From 1790 until 1893, Hancock was the seat of the Hancock Bishopric, which oversaw two additional Shaker communes in Tyringham, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut.

Isaac Newton Youngs was a member of the Shakers. He was a prolific scribe, correspondent, and diarist who documented the history of the New Lebanon, New York Church Family of Shakers from 1815 to 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of United States inventions (before 1890)</span> Timeline of US inventions

The United States provided many inventions in the time from the Colonial Period to the Gilded Age, which were achieved by inventors who were either native-born or naturalized citizens of the United States. Copyright protection secures a person's right to his or her first-to-invent claim of the original invention in question, highlighted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, which gives the following enumerated power to the United States Congress:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronology of Shakers</span>

The chronology of Shakers is a list of important events pertaining to the history of the Shakers, a denomination of Christianity. Millenarians who believe that their founder, Ann Lee, experienced the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Shakers practice celibacy, confession of sin, communalism, ecstatic worship, pacifism, and egalitarianism. This spans the emergence of denomination in the mid-18th century, the emigration of the Shakers to New York on the eve of the American Revolution, subsequent missionary work and the establishment of nineteen major planned communities, and the continued persistence of the faith through decline into the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker communities</span> Settlements of the Shakers sect of Christianity

The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, it is thought that these communities spread into the cotton towns of North West England, with the football team of Bury taking on the Shaker name to acknowledge the Shaker community of Bury.The Shakers left England for the English colonies in North America in 1774. As they gained converts, the Shakers established numerous communities in the late-18th century through the entire 19th century. The first villages organized in Upstate New York and the New England states, and, through Shaker missionary efforts, Shaker communities appeared in the Midwestern states. Communities of Shakers were governed by area bishoprics and within the communities individuals were grouped into "family" units and worked together to manage daily activities. By 1836 eighteen major, long-term societies were founded, comprising some sixty families, along with a failed commune in Indiana. Many smaller, short-lived communities were established over the course of the 19th century, including two failed ventures into the Southeastern United States and an urban community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Shakers peaked in population by the 1840s and early 1850s, with a membership between 4,000 and 9,000. Growth in membership began to stagnate by the mid 1850s. In the turmoil of the American Civil War and subsequent Industrial Revolution, Shakerism went into severe decline. As the number of living Shakers diminished, Shaker communes were disbanded or otherwise ceased to exist. Some of their buildings and sites have become museums, and many are historic districts under the National Register of Historic Places. The only active community is Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, which is composed of at least three active members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Village Shaker settlement</span>

The Union Village Shaker settlement was a village organized by Shakers in Turtlecreek Township, Warren County, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker Seed Company</span> Former US seed company

The Shaker Seed Company was an American seed company that was owned and operated by the Shakers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, many Shaker communities produced several vegetable seed varieties for sale. The company created innovations in the marketing of seeds – including distributing, packaging and cataloging – all of which changed the horticultural business model forever.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker broom vise</span> Production vise for broom making

The Shaker broom vise is a specialized production vise that made the normally round broom flat to make it more efficient for cleaning purposes. The Shakers' invention revolutionized the production and form of brooms; in the process greatly expanding an industry in New England.

Joshua Gilpin was an American paper manufacturer from Philadelphia. Along with his brother, Thomas Gilpin, Jr. and his uncle Miers Fisher, he established the first paper manufacturing business in Delaware in 1787 at the Brandywine Village. In 1804, he introduced the technique of chemically bleaching paper-stuff from England to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildred Barker</span> American Shaker musician, scholar, and religious leader

Ruth Mildred Barker was a musician, scholar, manager, and spiritual leader from the Alfred and Sabbathday Lake Shaker villages. A prominent and respected Shaker during her long life, she worked to preserve Shaker music. With the help of Daniel Patterson, she recorded Early Shaker Spirituals, a collection of Shaker songs. In recognition of her achievements in the field, in 1983 she received the National Heritage Fellowship. She also co-founded and managed The Shaker Quarterly, a magazine and journal focused on the Shakers, to which she was also a regular contributor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Magazines, Hearst (1976-07-01). Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Silk Circa 1840: Larbi Paper". www.smith.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  3. Reif, Rita (1993). "Creature Comforts Came First". The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  4. "The Shakers . About the Shakers | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  5. Daniel Baird (1801-1867) lived at the North Union Shaker village, near Warrensville, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Giles B. Avery, Journal or Diary of A Tour made by the Ministry of New Lebanon to the Shaker Societies in the Western States, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, V:B-163, MS 3944, August 20, 1862.
  6. Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals, Compiled by Clara Endicott Sears. Houghton Mifflin. 1916-01-01.
  7. 1 2 3 Scott Stafford, "Among Shakers, Inventions Common," Berkshire Eagle, June 3, 2010, https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/among-shakers-inventions-common,136108, accessed July 21, 2019.
  8. "Great wheels: Knittyspin First Fall 2012". www.knitty.com. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  9. "Laundry/Machine Shop – Hancock Shaker Village". Hancock Shaker Village. Archived from the original on 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2016-05-06.