This section focuses on those developments that took place in the north–eastern seaboard of the United States, instigated by a number of key people who helped promote the cause of Shakerism and, by doing so, created a resource which was later used in the production of numerous exhibitions, publications and artefact reproductions. During the period from 1910 to 1945, North America was rapidly developing both economically and socially. In parallel with these changes in the world outside the Shaker communities, internal structural changes were also taking place in the now declining Shaker society. The majority of promotional activities centred on the Shakers and their material culture took the form of exhibitions, together with their accompanying literature. The exhibitions during this period tended to focus specifically on the furniture and were generally small scale. Exceptions to this included the 1935 exhibition at the Whitney Museum, New York, which was high profile in nature and helped to enhance the fashionable quality of the items on display as well as aligning their style with Modernity. Markets for original Shaker artefacts were strengthening and a cohort of collectors was established. The momentum for all things Shaker was gathering pace in the United States of America, but the society of Shakers and its material culture remained largely unknown outside this tight–knit group of academics/curators and collectors. This section features both the exhibitions of the period (which made specific reference to the Shakers) and also details some of the interpretations which appeared in popular culture venues such as shops and the press. This goes some way to explain later developments in which the Shaker aesthetic infiltrates many and varied cultural phenomena.

Influences taken from Museum Culture

In the early part of the twentieth century, the United States of America was still largely an agrarian society, with dramatic contrasts between the urban industrialised pockets, largely in the east and the north, and the rural communities. The development of the railroads in the previous century was probably the most significant factor in the rapidly expanding economy of the United States, although as The Times Atlas of World History notes, other factors helped: ‘… abundant natural resources, a literate population, a managerial and organisational revolution, political stability, large–scale foreign capital investment and a pervasive entrepreneurial ethic.’