Bench

United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (“Shakers”)

1825–50 · Pine · The American Wing

Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, Shakers (or United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing) united on this bench for religious services. In the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, the Shakers established utopian communities that were progressive for the period in their practice of gender and social equality. The streamlined form of this bench also reflects the Shakers’ interests in asceticism and efficiency in the face of amplified American consumerism and industrialization.

Artist

United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (“Shakers”)

Date

1825–50

Medium

Pine

Culture

American, Shaker

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Friends of the American Wing Fund, 1966