HARVARD, Mass. – Fruitlands Museum in Harvard has reopened for the 2025 with a new exhibition focusing on the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the Shakers in America, drawing from one of the oldest and largest repositories of Shaker archival material which is maintained by The Trustees of Reservations.
“a good many hands” Shaker Communities Woven through Word, Image & Object is now open to the public in the Seasonal Gallery at Fruitlands. Fruitlands sits just four miles from the site of the Harvard Shaker Village, first settled in 1781and closed in 1918. Fruitlands Museum’s founder Clara Endicott Sears acquired many Shaker objects from the village, opening the first Shaker museum at Fruitlands in 1922. Those objects were entrusted to The Trustees when it acquired Fruitlands in 2016.
The Trustees’ Senior Curator Christie Jackson curated the exhibition and based it around a phrase she kept coming across in the Shaker collection at The Trustees’ Archives and Research Center, “a good many hands.”
“It really gets to the heart of who the Shakers are, many people working together in a community forged through worship, connection to the land, commitment to sustainability, and each other,” said Jackson.
Many personal objects make up the exhibition, such as a needle sharpener fashioned to look like a strawberry, a spool stand, furniture, and textiles. In the nearby Shaker Gallery, a historic building once a central part of the Harvard Shaker Village that was relocated to Fruitlands by Sears a few years after the Village closed in 1918, a contemporary art installation by Brece Honeycutt titled “anything but drab” accompanies the exhibition.
“Brece continues the traditions of the Shakers—specifically the use of Shaker colors and dyes—in her art,” said Jackson. “It feels like her work has always belonged in this space…it’s a perfect blend of history with modern artistic practice.”
Honeycutt’s installation coincides with a refresh of the historic objects on display in the Shaker Gallery. Many of these items haven’t been available for public viewing in years, and work in tandem with both the new artwork and larger exhibition to bring visitors into the vibrant life of the Shaker community.
In addition to the Shaker exhibition, Fruitlands’ Four Seasons Gallery continues to feature the Across Boundaries Across Barriers and Place of Intersection: Survivance in the American West exhibitions. Several artworks and belongings previously featured in Across Boundaries Across Barriers have been rotated out, making way for newly selected pieces. Many of these objects, unseen by the public for decades, have been brought forward with fresh context, according to The Trustees’ Associate Curator of Native American Art, Tess Lukey. Originally collected by Sears in the early 20th century, these items are now presented through a Native-centered perspective.
The Across Boundaries Across Barriers exhibition is organized using the framework of the seven directions, a belief shared by several Eastern Woodlands Native communities. These directions are tied to the guiding principles of the medicine wheel, a symbol among indigenous peoples signifying the Earth’s boundaries and all knowledge contained within the universe.
Fruitlands Museum is open May 1-Nov. 2 on Thursdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additionally, the museum is open holiday Mondays – Memorial Day, Labor Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entrance to the museum buildings is included in the admission to Fruitlands.
About The Trustees
Founded by landscape architect Charles Eliot in 1891, The Trustees has, for over 130 years, been a catalyst for important ideas, endeavors, and progress in Massachusetts. As a steward of distinctive and dynamic places of both historic and cultural value, The Trustees is the nation’s first preservation and conservation organization, and its landscapes and landmarks continue to inspire discussion, innovation, and action today as they did in the past. We are a nonprofit, supported by members, friends and donors and our 124 sites are destinations for residents, members, and visitors alike, welcoming millions of guests annually. www.thetrustees.org.