The Architecture of the Shakers - Hardcover

Morgan, Bret; Nicoletta, Julie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 088150310X ISBN 13: 9780881503104

Publisher: Countryman Press, 2000

Synopsis

During the nineteenth century, the Shakers conducted America's first successful experiment in utopian living.

From Maine to Kentucky, they built communal villages whose unique buildings were designed to accommodate hundreds of inhabitants unified in the common purpose of work and worship. Julie Nicoletta's perceptive text and Bret Morgan's striking photographs illuminate the austere beauty, regional variations, and functional and stylistic evolution of Shaker buildings over the course of two centuries, evoking a visual and literary survey of Shaker design and its impact on our culture at large. Despite the fact that Shaker communities are almost extinct, an appreciation for their legacy continues to grow. Architects, designers, curators, collectors, and an ever-widening public have sought inspiration in Shaker art and architecture. The Architecture of the Shakers is a book for all those who wish to learn more about these remarkable buildings and how the rich cultural legacy of the Shakers continues to resonate within them.

About this title

About the Author

Julie Nicoletta is a leading member of a new generation of scholars specializing in American vernacular architecture. Currently a professor of history at the University of Washington, Nicoletta holds a doctorate in art history from Yale University. Bret Morgan is a photographer with a special interest in the poetry of old buildings. His architectural and institutional clients include Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian. Morgan holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University.

Reviews

Historian Nicoletta presents Shaker architecture as a function of the sect's spirituality, celibacy, and industriousness and examines its evolution from the beginnings of religious revivalism to the decline of Shakerism in the 20th century. The 22 communities, once bustling, have long since been abandoned (with the exception of Sabbathday Lake, Maine), and the author shows how the rise and fall of Shakerism influenced the construction and renovation of their structures. Nicoletta also discusses the effect outside influences had on Shaker architecture, especially as members began to leave the communities. This work is more substantive than Paul Rocheleau and June Sprigg's Shaker Built: The Form and Function of Shaker Architecture (LJ 2/1/95) because here Nicoletta focuses on how the different construction styles served the Shakers' unique lifestyle. And although he does not offer the plans that Herbert Schiffer included in Shaker Architecture (1979), Nicoletta presents color photographs of communities that have since been renovated. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries with strong Shaker or vernacular architecture collections.
Julie C. Boehning, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Countryman Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 088150310X
• ISBN 13: 9780881503104
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176