Blog Articles

Billy Rankin, VP of Public Programming and Organizational Strategy Have you visited Shaker Village in the last few years? If ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist That’s a wrap, folks! My time officially working on the NEH grant project has come to ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist Happy New Year, y’all! Did you miss me? The NEH grant series took a hiatus last ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator The staff and administration at Shaker Village entered 2020 with a high level of energy and ...
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Jacob A. Glover, PhD, Director of Public Programs and Education "This is a remarkable cold windy day.  This day one of ...
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Margaret Graves, Campaign Director Ellen Chapman has a special passion for Shaker Village. She first visited Shaker Village as a ...
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Jacob A. Glover, PhD, Director of Public Programs and Education We’re unveiling a new series this afternoon that we are ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist It’s the penultimate month of our NEH grant project! Time sure flies, doesn’t it? Since July, ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. " - Zora Neale Hurston ...
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Jacob Glover, Ph.D., Director of Public Programs and Education "Great architecture has this capacity to adapt to changing functional uses ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator In the 1970s, the trees in the Shaker Village Apple Orchard were planted in honor of ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist What does the color combination of blue and white remind you of? Perhaps it is Blue ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD, Director of Public Programs and Education “…Shrieks and yells followed in alternate succession, till by their violence, ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist Hi again! The NEH digitization project is chugging right along. Last week, I finished editing object ...
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Jacob A. Glover, PhD, Director of Public Programs and Education “…The brethren started into the woods, about 3 ½ miles ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist Hello again, folks! We’re now halfway through our NEH grant timeline. I’m approaching the home stretch ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist In a previous post, I mentioned that sifting through our object records let me find large ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist Warning – The following post shares the stories of historic artifacts that have, in the past, ...
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By Maggie McAdams, Education and Engagement Manager Do you have a favorite Shaker artifact? When you think of Pleasant Hill, ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist Hello again! Welcome to the second installment of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant ...
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Laura Webb, Program Specialist "I visited here in 1993 and remember seeing an interesting clothes press. Where is that now, ...
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Maggie McAdams, Assistant Program Manager “’Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free, ‘tis a gift ...
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Aaron Genton, Collections Manager Social distancing.Stay at home orders.No school.No worship.Essential activities only.Take care of each other. Sound familiar? While ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager “Indeed, cooking is an art just as much as painting a picture or making a ...
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Maggie McAdams, Assistant Program Manager “… We observed one very pleasant feature… conspicuous above many other excellencies, nearly every person ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD. Program Manager "…We visited the department for the sick which was under the charge of Jane Ryan.…The ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD. Program Manager “About midnight last night, a band of mounted highway robbers, 6 in number, entered our ...
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Maggie McAdams, Assistant Program Manager This blog post is dedicated to Rebekah Roberts who sought the truth in the past, ...
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Holly Wood, Music Program Specialist “And I am thankful I was called into the gospel when I was a child, ...
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Rebekah Roberts, Program Specialist Women in the 1700s were often considered the possessions and servants of men, but Ann Lee ...
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Brandon Wilson, Program Specialist In 1808, Shaker missionaries hiked their way through Shawnee territory in the Indiana planes, on the ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator The Shakers practiced their faith at Pleasant Hill for more than a century, but their impact ...
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Brandon Wilson, Program Specialist Among Pleasant Hill’s most iconic residents was Philip West, a man whose habitation in the East ...
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Brandon Wilson, Program Specialist Over the course of its history, the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill was the spiritual home ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager “It was something out of a Faulkner novel, going there for dinner.” - Dick DeCamp, ...
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The Shakers were no strangers to celestial phenomena like the solar eclipse that will cast fleeting darkness over portions of ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager “These people are rich and getting richer. Contrast a Shaker broom with a penitentiary contract-labor ...
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A quiet winter peace falls over Shaker Village this time of year. The bustle of the holidays is ending, and ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator Guests attending Illuminated Evenings at Shaker Village may donate non-perishable food items or winter clothing in ...
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Rebekah Roberts, Program Specialist “A large business is done… in pressed and prepared herbs and roots, besides many tons in ...
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Barry Stumbo, Chief Development Officer Mrs. Milly Ann Stewart is a remarkable person, who has been a powerful and influential ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager "...I almost expect to be remembered as a chair, or a table..." - Shaker Sister ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator Celebrating Success: Phase 1 of The Campaign for Shaker Village In late 2014, the Board of ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager “A village of Shakers lies a few miles beyond Kentucky river, and it is curious ...
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William Updike, VP of Natural and Cultural ResourcesMike Brown, Maintenance ForemanBen Leffew, Preserve ManagerLaura Baird, Assistant Preserve ManagerMike Moore, Farm ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD, Program Manager “The House is built of so dureable materials, that one might suppose it would stand ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager By all accounts, most readers of this blog, and probably anyone who has heard any ...
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William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources Many of you may recall we began working to preserve the ...
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Rebecca Wilson, Catering & Event Sales Manager When you book a wedding with Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, your experience ...
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Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator As we have shared in previous posts, Shaker Village recently completed a large-scale preservation project in ...
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Maggie McAdams, Assistant Program Manager “[1855] Wed. January 3 Today George Curds barn took fire and burnt up, together with ...
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William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources Shaker Village has over 25 miles of historic rock fence along ...
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Ben Leffew, Preserve ManagerLaura Baird, Assistant Preserve Manager Bats are an integral, but often overlooked and always misunderstood, part of ...
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Jacob Glover, PhD. Program Manager “Thousands of holy Angels attended this meeting, with whom was the Prophets Jeremiah, Joel, Ezekiel ...
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Aaron Genton, Collections Manager While recently going through some boxes in the library, I came across this really interesting item ...
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Shaker Village Board of Trustees Offer Matching Gift Challenge Barry Stumbo, Chief Development Officer The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill ...
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William Updike, Vice President of Natural & Cultural Resources 1817 East Family Dwelling as "Shakertown Inn." Early 20th Century. Many ...
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Julia Raimondi, University of Richmond Samuel Oscar Berry was one of many orphans that Shaker merchants brought back to Pleasant ...
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For Ann Bakhaus, supporting Shaker Village has been a family affair. Barry Stumbo, Chief Development Officer Ann Bakhaus, recently elected ...
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(or, why you should stop meeting in boring locations and host your next company retreat @ Shaker Village!) Sandra Wolcott, ...
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Preservation Projects for the Summer of 2019 William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources This is an exciting ...
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Ben Leffew, Preserve ManagerLaura Baird, Assistant Preserve Manager Monarch butterfly in the Shaker Village Preserve Entering the summer months marks ...
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Sustainability through Geothermal Systems William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources Shaker Village is on a mission to ...
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Pleasant Hill bears witness to the Civil War Jacob Glover, PhD, Program Manager “Such a day as this has never ...
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J. Michael Moore, Farm Manager As you drive the countryside and croplands of Kentucky, there’s something new appearing on the ...
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Aaron Genton, Collections Manager One day earlier this week, I had a chance to see all of the Pleasant Hill ...
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Edith S. Bingham We were driving through Shakertown. It was in 1964 or ’65, when the state road ran right ...
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Brenda Roseman It's Friday, August 1, 1969. Richard Nixon is President. Neil Armstrong has just become the first human to ...
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How often do you stop to admire a door, when passing from one room to another? If you are like ...
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Gabby Kreinbrook, Equine and Stable Assistant February is always an exciting time as we come to the close (hopefully) of ...
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Ben Leffew, Preserve ManagerLaura Baird, Assistant Preserve Manager We're happy to report that on February 26 and 27 Shaker Village ...
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Maggie McAdams, Assistant Program Manager Gender equality was, and is, a hallmark of Shaker belief. In modern times, much of ...
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J Dylan Kennedy, Farm Manager During these last weeks of winter, feeding animals becomes our most regular, and important daily ...
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J Dylan Kennedy, Farm Manager The latest news on the farm is pretty big for us. Our resident cattle herd ...
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Aaron Genton, Collections Manager The Pleasant Hill Shakers were known for their production of silk products. We have another set ...
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Aaron Genton, Collections Manager I’m sharing this visitor's account because I really like the description of the natural landscape given ...
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Barbara Huelette with Shaker Village VP William Updike, in front of the 1811 Old Stone Shop. “We make you kindly ...
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It’s that time of year when everyone is in a spooky mood. If you want to take part in the ...
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Shaker Village opened its doors to guests from around the world in April 1968. Fifty years later, we celebrate those ...
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On September 8, 2018, we held a Community Sing in the Meeting House to sing this amazing space back into ...
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In the changing historic landscape of Pleasant Hill, buildings came and buildings went. It’s impossible to view the photographic and ...
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What do you know about sorghum? Enjoying sticky sorghum over warm, buttered cornbread is kind of like satiating Kentucky’s first ...
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Big news! The Meeting House has reopened. You may remember that we've been doing preservation work on it since last ...
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Much like the Shakers, our farmers use draft horses to provide horsepower for a variety of purposes—to work the sorghum ...
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Being the farm manager at Shaker Village is a pretty good gig for someone who wakes up and goes to ...
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After 46 years of employment with Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Dixie Huffman is retiring. While that is a remarkable ...
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Our official connection to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail might be recent, but the Shakers processed and distilled herbs and plants ...
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The journals kept by the Shakers have a lot of information in them, and most of it is very basic ...
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As part of our current preservation project on the Centre Family Dwelling, the bell tower has been removed via crane! ...
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Shaker Village, the nonprofit organization, opened its doors to guests from around the world in April 1968. By the end ...
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If you’ve been down to the Shaker Modern exhibit in the East Family buildings, you’ve seen a bunch of old ...
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When was the last time you visited Shaker Village? There's A LOT happening around here. And we aren't just talking ...
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As winters sits behind us (thank goodness!) and spring begins to show its face, it’s time to start thinking about ...
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Don’t be fooled by the weather–spring is here! The calendar says March 20 is the very first day of spring, but ...
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With just a few warm days around the Village, we're quickly getting excited for spring. Spring means baby animals, goodies ...
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Still hunting for that perfect Valentine's Day gift? Enter to win two tickets to a Fresh Food Adventure at Shaker ...
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It's time to make your list and check it twice! We've got a little something for everyone on your shopping ...
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While it may come as a surprise to some, turns out, the Shakers knew how to enjoy the holiday season ...
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Just like every department, The Preserve team has unique ways in measuring successes for Shaker Village. Since we started converting ...
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NOTICE: PRESERVATION@WORK Geothermal drilling will commence no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and will cease no later than 6 p.m. each ...
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