Shakers | Harvard Historical Society

Tabitha Babbitt

Babbitt’s, a tool maker and inventor, was a member of the Harvard Shaker community. Inventions attributed to her include the circular saw.

“My first dinner at the Shaker Community was at noon that Friday. That was a traumatic meal for me. I had been brought up in the Catholic Church at a time when it did not accept eating meat on a Friday.”
Sister Frances A. Carr, “Growing Up Shaker”

The Harvard Shakers, their barns and the worst agricultural land in Harvard

Robert C. Anderson in his “Directions of a Town” wrote: “The first task of the Shakers at Harvard in their growing years was the cultivation and improvement of the tracts of land they had acquired, probably the worst agricultural land in Harvard.”

Ann Lee

Mother Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, established a community in Harvard in 1781, the second oldest Shaker settlement in the United States.

Shaker Cemetery

The Harvard Shaker Cemetery, also known as the “Lollipop Cemetery,” is a unique burial ground located in the Shaker Village of Harvard, Massachusetts.

Shakers South Family Stone Barn

The Shaker Stone Barn was built in 1835. Located at 101 South Shaker Road, the barn is now a ruin, but some of its most significant and striking masonry features still remain.

Eleanor Willard Merrifield

Born in Still River in 1864, Eleanor created hand-colored photographs documenting buildings of the Harvard Shaker Village.

Clara Endicott Sears

Clara Endicott Sears was born in Boston, Mass., on December 16, 1862, the daughter of Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield Sears.

The Cultural Landscape of the Harvard Shakers. What has Vanished and What Remains

Ned Quist, a retired academic librarian, gave an illustrated talk about the changes the Shakers made to the landscape of northeastern Harvard, showing what used to be there between 1791 and 1917 and the few buildings that remain today.

Shaker Open House

Open House at the Harvard Historical Society featuring our permanent Shaker Collection and a unique Shaker desk on loan to the society. The members prepared a few Shaker Recipes that could be tasted during this event.

Shaker Hidden Treasure

People were invited to admire a newly arrived Shaker Desk, on loan to the society, and learn about two special Shakers who might have used it.