In May 2025 Fruitlands Museum opens the exhibit, “a good many hands” Shaker Communities Woven through Word, Image & Object.

The phrase, “a good many hands” is repeatedly used in a mid-19th century journal by the Shaker Sisters of Harvard, Massachusetts, and eloquently captures the spirit of the Shakers, an intriguing and influential religious movement in America. This exhibit celebrates the community forged by the Harvard Shaker Village—through their work, worship, connection to the land and to each other.

Fruitlands Museum is only four miles away from the original site of the Harvard Shaker Village, home to a thriving community from 1781 to 1918. Central to this exhibit are journals, letters, and photographs from the Shaker Archives at Fruitlands Museum, one of the oldest and largest repositories of Shaker archival materials in the country. Personal objects, furniture, and textiles will enrich the stories being shared, offering an intimate and relatable experience for visitors to learn about the concept of community among the Shakers, all within a local landscape.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the Shakers in America, bringing with them a community that celebrated gender and racial equality, pacifism, and sustainability. Today they are also appreciated for their craftsmanship, innovation, and connection to the natural world.

We are also excited to announce that artist Brece Honeycutt is collaborating with Senior Curator Christie Jackson on an installation in the Shaker Office at Fruitlands Museum. Honeycutt’s interest in the temporal and spiritual uses of Shaker color will be explored in her installation, anything but drab. Honeycutt’s installation centers on a large-scale accordion book painted with watercolors and dyes, similar to ones used by the Shakers. The colors on the pages echo Shaker chromatics found on the building’s architectural elements. Brece’s work, and other Shaker objects on display in the Shaker Office, will be in dialogue with the exhibition, a good many hands, on view in the gallery.

We invite you to celebrate with us. Just as it did in history, a good many hands today can foster a vibrant and uplifting sense of community.