Coming Soon: Exhibit of Works by Carol Peachee

Alli Bramel, Collections Specialist

Lexington photographer Carol Peachee has photographed Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill for more than four decades. Later this month, an exhibit of selected works from her book, Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill’s Shaker Village, will be on display in the Centre Family Dwelling.

Front cover of Carol Peachee’s book Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill’s Shaker Village.  
Image courtesy of The University Press of Kentucky, 2024.

We spoke with Carol over the phone about her work as an artist, her time spent photographing the collections at Pleasant Hill, and what she hopes visitors take away from her project.

Tell us about your background and how you got your start in photography. How long have you been an artist?

 I received my first camera at the age of sixteen and set up my very first dark room around the same time. In the beginning, I used my camera to document everyday moments, much like many others do. My interest in photography deepened when I spent a year in Europe through my college’s abroad program, during which I took a photography class with Janine Niépce. Janine, related to Joseph Niépce—one of photography’s pioneers—became more of a mentor than an instructor, as the class consisted of just the two of us working closely together. It was during this mentorship that I first realized photography could serve a larger purpose: to tell a story, capture a mood, and have a meaningful impact.

It wasn’t until 2005 that I was comfortable calling myself an artist, when I first received encouragement from others who viewed my work and suggested I publish it. Before then, my photographs were captured for personal satisfaction. Afterwards, while I continued to photograph for myself, I also began considering how my images could be shared publicly. I started submitting my work to art shows, won awards, and eventually published my first book in 2015.

You’ve photographed Pleasant Hill for over four decades. What was the initial thing that drew you to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill? Why the Shakers?

My upbringing in Richmond, Virginia included frequent visits to Colonial Williamsburg and other historic locations as they were being restored for public appreciation. This early exposure sparked a lifelong interest in history and cultural sites. My connection to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill began after I moved to Kentucky for graduate school. When I first visited Shaker Village, I was immediately struck by its atmosphere, reminiscent of Williamsburg, yet distinctly unique. My curiosity led me to learn more about the Shaker community, their beliefs, commitment to equality, and social justice values, even before such terms were used. The monastic, utopian qualities of the community resonated deeply with me and reflected many of my own values, creating a lasting connection that drew me back over the decades.

Walk us through your planning process for capturing the images that came to be included in your book Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill’s Shaker Village. How was this process different from other projects you’ve worked on in the past?

This project was completely different from my past projects. In past projects, I was photographing abandoned distilleries or sites, or I was searching out and photographing historic barns.  Mostly I was alone in determining what was to be photographed, and how to interpret the site.  At Shaker Village the photographic experience was more interactive with others.  Initially, in the 1990’s, the Village was set up as living history with the collection curated as a display and people dressed in period costumes acting as interpreters.  When I photographed then I was limited by how the “set” was arranged and the area I was allowed in.  Since that time, the material collection has been maintained as a museum collection in a temperature-controlled facility. To photograph the items in the collection required I work closely with the Collections and Education Director, Becky Soules. This began a collaborative process that was very different from past projects for me.  For example, I might tell Becky that I wanted to photograph things that could be metaphorically linked to spirituality, and she would provide different options from the collection to work with.  Eventually, I started asking for specific things. I would maybe ask, “Do you have wood working tools?” and Becky would pull a representation of those types of objects from the collection.  This book wouldn’t be the book it is without Becky. It was an extremely collaborative experience between the two of us. I went from doing completely solitary photographing experiences in my other projects to an extremely collaborative experience.

A crucial aspect of your work is to bring awareness to cultural and natural heritage sites. How do you hope your photographs will impact the understanding of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill as a cultural heritage site?

Well, there are layers to this answer.

Superficially, I like to document in a way that makes people want to look at things that are disappearing. I want to stimulate thinking about how those things reflect how we have lived in the past.  Where we came from matters. In my work as a psychotherapist, I always go back to where people come from. Where we came from and how we did things mattered. But I don’t want to just document it. I want people to pause and have an emotional response. An emotional response may make them care and think about saving these things.

Another layer is related to the shift away from living history in presentation of material goods and the availability of access to items in a collection. I want to stimulate readers to consider history in a live way. As a child at Williamsburg, I would get to stand in historic places and try and image life during those times. The interpretations helped.  That made me appreciate the connection of humanity through time.  My hope is my books can present the collections with a certain amount of interpretation that might stimulate the same consideration of history. I also hope to help stimulate an even younger generation. I actually put my books in the waiting room in my office and kids will flip through them and look at the pictures and ask questions.

Do you have a favorite grouping of photographs you captured during this project? Was there a particular artifact or building that was your favorite to capture?

There are 3 different styles of images of the Trustees’ Office staircase that are among my favorites. I have them hanging in my dining room at home. I like this grouping because there’s one that is modern and angular, one that is very soft and traditional, and one that is playful. Although it’s the same staircase, it has many different perspectives. You can come back repeatedly and see it differently each time. It’s dynamic, not static. As people look at it over time, they’ll see something different. The second photo is like a film one I took in the 1990s.

I also like the image of textile draped over the back of a chair. The textile is pink, but I have the black and white image in my house. There’s something very familiar to me about that image.

What is your editing process like taking your captured images to black-and-white? What is the process like to take those black-and-white photos back to color for this exhibit?

I process the image first in color and get it close to what I might like as a color image. I supersaturate it to then translate it into black-and-white and play with contrast and light. Knowing what will happen when you translate it helps. Knowing what red, green, or yellow will look like in black-and-white.

Then I utilize color information to desaturate and create the black-and-white rendering. This process is itself a form of artistry. Even if the same original image were provided to three different artists, their outcomes would inevitably vary.

Taking an image from color, to black-and-white, and back to color are three different processes. Sometimes, I go back to the first color image I took and work off that.  Other times I’ll start from the black-and-white photo and reprocess it back to color. At each stage, there are artistic decisions to make.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about your hope for this body of work and what you hope visitors will take away from this exhibit?

I hope people who look at the photos can see more than objects. I wanted to create an emotional response to how the Shakers lived. For example, I hope people see not just a pair of shoes on the floor. When people look at those shoes, I hope they can  imagine a Shaker sister sitting in the Meeting House wearing these shoes during service. Shoes of silk that might have been made of silk spun right here at Pleasant Hill. I want people to think about the people’s lives behind these objects, not just the stuff.

What’s interesting is how the Shakers’ philosophy and their lived lives became integrated into their objects. These objects were not made to be beautiful but were beautiful because they were infused with their philosophy and spirituality. The objects are beautiful not because the Shakers wanted to have pretty things, but because they made their objects for a higher power. The beauty was a biproduct.  Hands to Work Hearts to God.

The exhibition, Shaker Made: Carol Peachee’s Photography of Pleasant Hill, will open on July 19, 2025, and be included with general admission to Shaker Village through November 9, 2025. Carol Peachee will sign copies of her book Shaker Made: Inside Pleasant Hill’s Shaker Village, and copies of the book will be for sale during the opening on July 19th.

Restoring The East Family Wash House

Alli Bramel, Collections Specialist

National Historic Preservation Month is celebrated in May and recognizes the nation’s heritage through historic places. At Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, we are constantly working to preserve 34 historic structures on our 3,000-acre property. To us, our buildings are seen as artifacts that are part of our permanent collection, just like the artifacts you see in our exhibits throughout the Village, and therefore it is crucial we work to maintain them for years to come.

It is fitting that National Historic Preservation Month kicks off as major rehabilitation is set to begin on one of our buildings: the East Family Wash House. Built in 1835, with an addition added in 1849, the building will be receiving needed repairs on both the building’s exterior and interior.

East Family Wash House, pre-restoration.

The work to be done will concentrate on repairing wood rot, weatherproofing, window repairs and addressing other mechanical issues.

Ahead of the scheduled work, we decided to look back at our photograph collection for images of the East Family Wash House when it was worked on following the establishment of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill as a nonprofit, educational corporation in 1961.

East Family Wash House undergoing initial restoration.
East Family Wash House cistern at left, stairway center. The view is from the center of the building looking west.

Be sure to join us for our Daily Adventure program Preservation at Work to learn more details about the work being done on the building and check back on the East Family Wash House rehabilitation work over the next few months!

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Approximately 40% of our operating budget is funded by contributions from private individuals and families. Please consider making a gift that supports historic preservation, conservation of the natural landscape, educational programming, sustainable agricultural and warm-spirted hospitality.

Remembering The Last Shaker

Alli Bramel, Collections Specialist

March 29th marks the 102nd anniversary of the passing of Sister Mary Settles, the last Shaker who lived at Pleasant Hill. A mother, educator, leader, and local celebrity, Sister Mary’s commitment to the Shaker faith and to the Pleasant Hill community remained a large part of her until her death.

Sister Mary Settles took on many different leadership roles during her time at Pleasant Hill, including serving as one of Pleasant Hill’s teachers. In 1874, her first class included all nineteen of the community’s school-aged girls. On a few occasions, when no male teacher was available, Sister Mary would teach the school-aged boys, as the classroom followed the Shakers’ practice of separating students based on gender.

A former student of Sister Mary identified her in this photograph with an “X.” On the reverse, it is captioned “Sister Mary Settles, my teacher when I was a child.”

Sister Mary would also take her students on outings outside of the classroom, such as recreational wagon rides and picnics. She would also serve as a theatrical director, coordinating several “entertainments” produced by the children she taught. Sister Mary’s students remembered her long she taught them.

Sister Mary retired from teaching in 1890. Although she retained her teaching certification for many years, even going to participate in the Harrodsburg teachers’ institute as part of the state of Kentucky’s requirement for teachers, it was deemed unnecessary to continue the school at Pleasant Hill due to there being fewer and fewer children to educate in Pleasant Hill’s population.

Sister Mary died peacefully on March 29, 1923 in Centre Family Dwelling and is buried in the cemetery at Pleasant Hill. Her legacy as an educator, leader, and well-known facet of Pleasant Hill remains true to this day.

“Sister Mary was a woman of remarkable character, and intellect. For a great many years she was at the head of the school in Shakertown, helping to shape its policies through her educational work. She loved young people and was very congenial with them.” – Harrodsburg Herald, March 30, 1923 

Some Went for Flowers…

Alli Bramel, Collections Specialist

At Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, we are always learning about the people who called Pleasant Hill home. In celebration of International Women’s Day, we wanted take a closer look at one of Pleasant Hill’s female spiritual leaders, who not only served the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill until her death, but compiled a vital piece of material culture, offering insight into the early music of the Shakers.

Paulina Bryant served in Pleasant Hill’s ministry for 45 years, the longest tenure of any member of the community’s leadership, male or female. The ministry was ultimately responsible for Shaker spiritual leadership, including appointing elders, trustees, and deacons in each family within the community.

She was born on February 10, 1808 in Fayette County, Kentucky and came to Pleasant Hill with her parents and other family members in March 1810. Paulina served as deaconess for the Centre Family, taking charge over the temporal matters of everyday life, living, and business within the Centre Family beginning in 1834.

On June 20, 1841, Paulina was appointed as second to Sarah Jenkins within the Pleasant Hill ministry by the ministry at New Lebanon. Paulina was then appointed first Eldress and would remain in this position until her death in 1886.

As a group, the Shakers have written over 20,000 songs since the eighteenth century. Music and song were vital to Shaker life and Shaker worship. In the early decades of the Shaker West, the tunes for hymns and songs were mainly held in oral tradition. When the “Era of Manifestations” reached Pleasant Hill in the late 1830s, new music written by Shaker sisters and brethren flowed through Pleasant Hill.

Eldress Paulina Bryant (back left) is pictured with Eldress Eliza Carpenter and Elder Benjamin Dunlavy in front of the Ministry’s Workshop, c. 1885.

However, Eldress Paulina recognized the importance of preserving the older music that had been used during Shaker worship from its founding until the beginning of the “Era of Manifestations.”

In 1854, Eldress Paulina began to compile a manuscript of “ancient songs” written and sung at Pleasant Hill, as well as songs and hymns originating at other Shaker sites. These songs served as the foundation of Pleasant Hill’s music up until 1840. This collection has been of great value to modern Shaker scholars in reconstructing earlier Shaker music both at Pleasant Hill and throughout the Shaker west. The manuscript is housed within the Library of Congress.

Eldress Paulina died on September 13, 1886 at Pleasant Hill and is buried in the Pleasant Hill cemetery. For her funeral, large bouquets of fresh flowers were gathered to decorate her coffin:

“Demise Eldress Polina [Paulina] Bryant Leading sister of the Society at Pleasant Hill & excellent pattern of Christianity….some went for flowers to decorate Eldress Polinas coffin / in PH Ministry 1841 until death, 1886, 45 yrs.”

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we celebrate Paulina Bryant and her many contributions to the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, along with all the sisters at Pleasant Hill that contributed to its rich history.

To learn more about the women of Pleasant Hill go behind the scenes with Shaker Village’s curator to explore Shaker Sisterhood on Saturday, March 8.

A Year of Progress, Preservation & Connection

Melissa Williams, Chief Development Officer

The twinkling white lights strung across the Village instill a quiet sense of inner peace and renewal as you walk down the historic turnpike. It feels this way every year as the calendar turns from December to January, but this year there is an extra sense of something magical in the air.

2024 marked the 250th anniversary of the Shakers’ arrival in America. As we commemorate this milestone there is so much to celebrate this year at Pleasant Hill—thanks to the incredible support of our community of donors, guests, volunteers, staff and Trustees.  It’s your support through your visits and your gifts of time and treasure that preserves history, stewards 3,000 acres of natural and cultural landscape and inspires memory-making experiences for guests of all ages.

Below are a few highlights from 2024, made possible through your support:

  • Donors came together to meet the Trustees’ Matching Challenge, raising more than $325,000 for Shaker Village’s mission.
  • Significant progress was made in preserving the site’s history through preservation projects:
    • Exterior carpentry at the West Family Sisters’ Shop including restored windows, doors and the soffit.
    • A fresh coat of paint completed the restoration of the Carriage House.
    • Ongoing maintenance and repairs were completed at historic buildings across the Village.
Carpenter Robert Brown replaces windows in the West Family Sisters’ Shop.
  • Our teams cared for the cultural landscape making upgrades to the 30.5-mile trail system.
    • New benches were added at key spots in the Preserve to add peaceful rest stops for hikers.
    • New bluebird boxes and fishing line disposal receptacles were installed to support biodiversity and protect habitats.
    • Clearing of invasive plants began in key areas along Highway 68 and near the West Lot Dwelling to enhance our habitat focus.
Thanks to a donor there are six new benches in the Preserve.
  • This year, we offered new and engaging experiences for guests including:
    • New field trip programs were introduced for schools, including If Walls Could Talk, which invites students to explore the architectural history of the Village.
    • The new Flushed Away daily program explored Shaker innovations in waste management while highlighting Shaker ingenuity.
    • Two temporary exhibits were featured this year: Spark! Places of Innovation highlighted the intersection of Shaker ingenuity and contemporary innovation, while Pleasant Hill Paintings: An Exhibition of Work – Charles Jolly, showcased vibrant artwork that brought Shaker Village to life.
    • A special experience celebrated Elizabeth Kremer’s role in the establishment of Shaker Village’s food service during the Fresh Food Adventure: A Step Back in Time.
Works from the Charles Jolly exhibit were featured in Centre Family Dwelling.
  • The success of the Farm continues to be a cornerstone of our sustainability efforts.
    • Guests learn about the benefits of nutrient-dense, locally grown foods through hands-on adventures such as Taste of Fresh and Shaker Orchards presented daily at the Farm.
    • The addition of Dr. H.P. Lovelace as the new farm manager signals an exciting chapter in expanding the farm’s role, focusing on holistic wellness, biodiversity and innovation.
New Farm Manager Dr. H.P. Lovelace cares for all of the Village’s “farmily” members.
  • Shaker Village continues to be a proud local employer and economic driver in Mercer County.
    • Collaborations with regional businesses and artisans have helped us create a thriving, welcoming environment for guests and a diverse staff.
    • The Village’s nine annual signature events draw thousands of guests to central Kentucky each year, stimulating local businesses, creating seasonal jobs and fostering community engagement.

As the year ends, Shaker Village remains a place where history is not only preserved but where it is
lived—through every conversation, every meal and every guest who explores the grounds. We’re looking forward to an even brighter year ahead filled with new exciting projects and countless
memory-making moments.