Coming soon!

Harvard Shaker History

A new book about the Harvard Shakers

Thursday May 21, 2026
7:00 pm

At the Harvard Historical Society, 215 Still River Road, Harvard MA 01451
$5 Donation appreciated to support our public programming
Conversation, refreshments, and book signing after the event.
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Ned Quist introduces his new and comprehensive book about the Harvard Shaker Village with an illustrated talk.

In this program, Ned tells about his new book, The Harvard Shakers and Their Cultural Landscape, his research, and uses a collection of images and evidence from Shaker Journals, to present a full picture of the Harvard Shakers. The book is illustrated with many beautiful pictures and maps.

After Mother Ann Lee came to Harvard, this communal society established four farms in the northeastern part of Harvard and in neighboring Ayer and Littleton. Their membership in the nineteenth century grew to as many as 180 Believers living and working in over eighty buildings on more than three thousand acres. Despite scant water resources, and poor-quality crop lands, their creative management,  along with plentiful timber, left behind not only eleven surviving buildings, but numerous signs on the landscape of their skill and perseverance. Ned Quist uses documentary evidence and the landscape itself to tell the story of this remarkable cultural landscape.

Ned Quist is a retired academic librarian, having spent his career as a music librarian and library administrator at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and Brown University. In addition to his interest in Shaker studies, he builds reproduction Shaker- and Arts and Crafts-style furniture in his basement in Warwick, Rhode Island.

This program is offered by the Harvard Historical Society as part of the Hidden Treasures Festival of Nature, Culture & History, an annual month-long celebration showcasing events and activities hosted by local partners celebrating the unique places, objects, and stories of the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area. Hidden Treasures programs are free and open to the public.