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Sabbathday Lake Shaker Library |
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Mailing address: |
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| United Society of Shakers 707 Shaker Road New Gloucester, ME 04260 (207) 926-4597 |
Email address: brooks1@shaker.lib.me.us Library website: www.shaker.lib.me.us |
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- The United Society of Shakers is a nonprofit educational corporation operated by the brothers and sisters of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, an active community of Shakers since 1783. As part of the United Society's operation, the brothers and sisters maintain the Shaker Library and the Shaker Museum.
- The Shaker Library is a research library established by Elder Otis Sawyer in 1882. The home of the Library and its collection of tens of thousands of items is the 1880 Shaker Schoolhouse. The Library is open year round on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 8:30 to 4:30 (close 12 to 1 p.m. for dinner). Appointments are required.
- The Shaker Library collection consists of a large variety of research materials: books; broadsides; pamphlets; manuscripts, bound and single-sheet; periodicals; microfilm; images; maps and land surveys; oral histories; audio and video recordings; and the Index Nominum. The Index Nominum contains over 15,000 names with biographical data of those who have been Shakers. The microfilm collection includes the Shaker manuscript collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio and its extensive Index Nominum, as well.
- The Shaker Library's genealogical section consists of many volumes. There are regional and state volumes (bibliographies and dictionaries) covering Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Connecticut, New York. Published family genealogies include Noyes, Sampson, Bangs, Frost, Harding, Hollister, Libby, Stinchfield/Stanchfield, Sedgley, Prescott, Wells, Wentworth.
- Special collections include materials about the Freewill Baptists, Koreshan Unity, Southcottians, Jerusalem Community, Mormon, Oneida, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Bishop Hill, Christian Science, Swedenborg, Fruitlands, Muggletonians, Harmony, Ephrata, New Llano, Owenites, Hutterites, Zoar, Panancea Society and others.
- Important Note: The Shaker Library has materials covering all of the approximately twenty Shaker villages that were located in eleven States. The Index Nominum covers all of the Shaker villages. Emphasis is on the Maine Shaker villages (New Gloucester [Sabbathday Lake], Alfred, Gorham), but interested parties should keep in mind that all Shaker villages are covered.