Author: Rob Levey

The Meaning of Beans

The Meaning of Beans

As people across the United States gather around their Thanksgiving tables, they participate in a social ritual ages old and rich with meaning. Anthropologists who study commensality know that this activity creates and strengthens relationships.

What Stone Walls Do

From the very first time the Shakers were gathered at Canterbury in 1792, stone walls were on their “to do” list. As Brother Henry C. Blinn observed, “The f[e]lling of trees, the clearing of the land, the building of stone walls, and the multiplied laborious duties of the farm, as well as the burden of obtaining suitable dwellings, called into active service every able bodied man.”

The Room Where Starch Happened

The Room Where Starch Happened

We recently reopened to visitors to the Canterbury Shaker Village the galvanized iron- and tin-lined room in the Laundry Complex. It is yet another example of the Canterbury Shakers’ labor-saving ingenuity.

David Katz elected Trustee Chair of Canterbury Shaker Village

David Katz

Bringing years of project and construction management experience and having held leadership positions on multiple municipal boards, David Katz was elected Board Chair of Canterbury Shaker Village on May 6, 2024. Katz has served as a Village Trustee since January 2022.

Following the Rules

The Shakers’ famous furniture depended on the humble measuring ruler.

For about one hundred years, the Canterbury Shakers made their own rulers. Fashioned of planed wood and incised with rules—the markings along the edge—a ruler allowed for efficient and accurate recording and transfer of information.