What it does
The mission of canterbury shaker village is to preserve and interpret the legacy of the shakers, providing a place for learning, reflection, and renewal of the human spirit. Canterbury shaker village, inc., an internationally recognized nonprofit museum, is a national historic landmark and museum with 25 preserved original shaker buildings, 4 reconstructed shaker buildings, and 694 acres of forests, fields, gardens, nature trails, and mill ponds under permanent conservation easement. The village's board, staff, volunteers, and supporters are dedicated to the preservation of the site and to interpreting the shakers' legacy through a robust calendar of exhibitions, programs, tours, and events.
Educational programming - canterbury shaker village interprets the lives and legacy of the canterbury shakers through a variety of interdisciplinary educational programs and offerings. Examples include permanent and special exhibitions, interpreter-led guided tours, public and private school field trips, special events, shaker-inspired workshops, and lectures. Each are designed to connect a diverse audience with the history and culture of the canterbury shakers.
Building and site preservation- canterbury shaker village, inc., documents, studies, preserves, and maintains the sites historic buildings, comprising 25 of the original 100 structures erected by the canterbury shakers. The village does so with strict adherence to national preservation standards and mandates. The 25 historic buildings represent 200 years of evolving building technology as well as historical shifts in shaker manufactures, entrepreneurship, and living arrangements. The structures date from 1792 to 1923 and document 200 years of the shakers' occupancy of the site. These structures' purposes housed and now represent the shakers' various community purposes: religious worship, residential structure, agricultural and industrial production, medical care, education, and cleanliness. These buildings' interiors retain a high integrity of intactness, while foundations of mills and other associated structures remain on the site and have been recorded and mapped by professional archaeologists.
Collections - canterbury shaker village, inc. Preserves the historic shakers' church family site, an exemplary preserved built environment. In 1993, the village received national historic landmark status for its national significance, architectural integrity, and historical authenticity. The village's nationally significant collections constitute one of the largest and most comprehensive body of shaker-made and shaker- used material culture and records remaining in an original shaker community. Nearly 90% of the village's 100,000+ objects, texts, and images have never left the site. These material culture and archival collections, representing 200 years of the canterbury shakers' communal life, are preserved on the site at which this evidence was produced and used. The collections' pre-eminent historic and cultural significance derives from these material and spatial associations, as well as serving as and representing links with other shaker communities. The village's collections are of local, state, regional, and national importance, informing such areas as american history, art, architecture, religion, technology, agriculture, domestic life, domestic industries, women's studies, and communitarian and utopian studies.