Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill's Shaker Village

Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill's Shaker Village

Although there are currently only a handful of members of the Shaker faith and one active community in the world today, Shakerism at its peak comprised thousands of members living in communal villages across the eastern United States. Kentucky's iconic Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill was one of these communities, and it remains an enduring cultural touchstone. The history of the Shakers is often reduced to the handmade objects they produced and sold, but their lives were so much more than their material culture. Their efforts were suffused with their religious beliefs: each piece's sturdy simplicity memorializes the Believers' devotion to God and how it guided their every action. Shaker Made is photographer Carol Peachee's love letter to the cultural artifacts―the architecture, furniture, and crafts―of one of America's most notable utopian societies. Peachee has photographed Pleasant Hill for more than four decades―from small items such as eyeglasses, embroidered handkerchiefs, elixir bottles, and bonnets, to the distinguished furniture and architecture of the more than 260 buildings that the Shakers built at Pleasant Hill. The curator of collections at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Rebecca Soules, provides an informative foreword to the photos, while Peachee herself offers a lovingly written introduction explaining her personal connection to the subject. The attention to detail in the simple yet beautifully composed photographs serve as an elegant and respectful tribute to the history and legacy of the Pleasant Hill Shakers―an often-misunderstood people who sought to honor the divine in all aspects of life. "Carol Peachee's Shaker Made provides an important glimpse into the material culture of one of America's most influential utopian societies. Rather than a simple 'inventory' of objects, Peachee's powerful black-and-white photos evoke the 'spirit of the maker.' The people behind the objects―their faith, their labor, their lives―become just as important as the objects themselves."―Billy Rankin, vice president of Public Programming & Marketing, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill "Carol Peachee captures Pleasant Hill objects and architecture in a most creative and effective way. The exceptional legacy of Shaker craftsmanship in Kentucky has been well documented in her work over the past thirty years, and University Press of Kentucky preserves it well in this volume."―Tommy Hines, executive director of South Union Shaker Village "The silence and stillness in this precisely documented material life of a Kentucky Shaker community is stunning as it ranges from landscape to jumbles of wooden wall pegs and carefully wrought metal keys. Insightful comments by the collections curator and the photographer introduce the black-and-white images, which, in a quiet and meditative way, invite the viewer and the visitor to marvel at the vibrancy that once enlivened this enduring repository of faith and radical belief."―Jane F. Crosthwaite, author of Shaker Visions of the Divine: Essays on Their Sacred Art and Scripture "The Shakers' understanding of the millennium undergirded the belief that their communities were 'heaven on earth' and that faithful industry could be reflected in material objects. Shaker landscapes, past and present, are vibrant tapestries manifesting Shaker spirituality and conviction. Carol Peachee's gorgeous images of Kentucky's Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill capture the reified beauty of the Shakers' lives of sacred devotion."―Carol Medlicott and Christian Goodwillie, authors of This Chosen Pleasant Hill: Shakers of the Kentucky Bluegrass "A fascinating volume."― Midwest Book Review "Carol Peachee's Shaker Made is more than just a photographic exploration of Shaker craftsmanship; it is a quiet, reverent journey that harkens back to a community defined by its commitment to simplicity, utility, and beauty. Through Peachee's lens, the simple but elegant furniture, tools, buildings, and spaces created by the Shakers evoke a sense of wonder and invite the reader to meditate on the culture that inspired such creations. . . . The book captures the soul of Shaker design through Peachee's attention to lighting, shadow, and context. Peachee does not simply present objects; she illuminates them. . . . . The book is not merely a collection of photographs; it is a carefully curated experience that invites the reader to slow down, observe, and appreciate the beauty of simplicity. Shaker Village is an engaging, informative, and enjoyable read."― The Southeastern Librarian Carol Peachee is a fine art photographer and psychotherapist whose photographic work explores cultural and natural heritage. She was awarded the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation's Clay Lancaster Heritage Education Award, a Governor's Award for Innovative Programming, and an Art Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Her books, Kentucky Barns: Agricultural Heritage of the Bluegrass , The Birth of