Entrance hall, Shaker Museum, Old Chatham, NY, circa 1950

About this postcard

The entrance hall of the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, New York: a long room under exposed rafters, its walls lined with wooden chests of many small drawers and glass cases holding Shaker tools and household goods. A large spoked wheel, likely a Shaker spinning wheel, is mounted on the dark paneled wall at right, and a doorway opens into a further room where machinery stands. Small printed labels identify the pieces, marking the space as an exhibit rather than a working shop. The museum was founded at Old Chatham in 1950 to gather furniture, craftwork, and tools from Shaker communities in New York and New England. The chests of tiny drawers and the plain wooden finishes on view reflect the Shaker regard for order and useful work, the qualities the museum's first visitors came to see.