Enfield Shaker Museum and Richard W. Couper Press Announce New Shaker Forum Publication
Enfield Shaker Museum and Richard W. Couper Press are pleased to announce the establishment of a new publication series, based on the Enfield Shaker Museum’s annual Spring Shaker Forum. Beginning in 2022, the Forum’s annual proceedings will appear in print. We hope to publish selected papers from each year’s Forum in a well-illustrated, full-color volume. The series will kick off with proceedings from the 2021 Forum, and hopefully a separate, retrospective volume gathering past Forum highlights.
Since 1997, the annual Spring Shaker Forum has encouraged new scholarship in Shaker Studies. Forum presenters range from established scholars from universities, museums, and libraries and independent scholars to emerging scholars in the many disciplines that contribute to the field of Shaker Studies. The Forum meets every April at Enfield Shaker Museum and includes tours, demonstrations, and musical performances, among other features.
“Enfield Shaker Museum’s collaboration with Couper Press on this publication endeavor will greatly expand the access to the research the distinguished Forum scholars present,” said Bruce Stefany, President of Enfield Shaker Museum’s Board of Trustees. “This is truly a significant initiative in the history of the Spring Shaker Forum.”
“We’re thrilled to work with the Enfield Shaker Museum to bring the proceedings of the Forum into print. In recent years, the Enfield Shaker Forum has become the preeminent venue for the dissemination of new research on the Shakers,” said Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives at the Burke Library at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
About Richard W. Couper Press: The Richard W. Couper Press publishes scholarship on communal studies and other topics that highlight the rich holdings of the Hamilton College Library’s Special Collections and Archives. The press was established in 2006 under the direction of Couper Librarian Randall Ericson and named in honor of Richard W. Couper ‘44, a Hamilton alumnus, life trustee, and benefactor of the Burke Library. The press currently publishes the journal American Communal Societies Quarterly and three monograph series: American Communal Societies, Shaker Studies, and Occasional Publications.
About Enfield Shaker Museum: The mission of the Enfield Shaker Museum, an educational institution located on the site of the historic Enfield Shaker Village, is to preserve and share its historical structures, landscape, and Shaker cultural heritage with its multi-generational visitors, members, and the global community. Nestled in a valley between Mt. Assurance and Mascoma Lake, in Enfield, New Hampshire, the Enfield Shaker community site has been cherished for over 200 years. At its peak in the mid-19th century, the community was home to three “Families” of Shakers. They practiced equality of the sexes and races, celibacy, pacifism, and communal ownership of property. The Enfield Shakers farmed over 3,000 acres of land, educated children in model schools, and worshiped in the “Shaker Way.” Today, their story is preserved by the Enfield Shaker Museum.