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The Library is housed in a renovated 1880 former Shaker Schoolhouse.

Special collections include the Radical Christian Collection, the Thomsonian Herbal Medicine Collection and the Poland Spring Collection.

Modern mobile shelving allows access to the extensive collection with future storage and environment security studies planned. Visit Shaker Library.

Shaker Library

The Shaker Library was founded in 1882 with an initial collection of 191 items - today the collection contains over 100,000 items.

Background

The Shaker Library was founded by Elder Otis Sawyer who was interested in securing a representation of materials by and about his church, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or, as more commonly known, the Shakers. For the princely sum of $27.00, Elder Henry Green built a bookcase to house the original library. The Shaker Library still uses Elder Henry’s bookcase.

In the years since the Library’s founding, the collection has grown under the care of Sister Aurelia Mace, Sister Mildred Barker and the late Brother Theodore Johnson. The Sabbathday Lake Shaker community today continues the support of the Library as Elder Otis originally directed --“the whole be sacredly kept.”

The Shaker Library is now housed in the 1880 former Shaker Schoolhouse. The building was extensively renovated from 1986-88 to become a modern home for the Library collection.

Shaker Collection

The Shaker Collection includes books, manuscripts (single sheet and bound), ephemera, periodicals, scrapbooks, photographs, microfilm, music, audio/video collection and maps. The Index Nominum contains some 15,000 names of people who were Shakers during the 260-year history of the Shaker church. Although the collection includes materials from Shaker communities in New England, Indiana, and Florida , materials about the Maine Shaker communities predominate.

Special collections are the Radical Christian Collection, the Thomsonian Herbal Medicine Collection and the Poland Spring Collection. What are the connections to the Shakers that these collections represent? Come to the Library and find out.

A special program of the Shaker Library is an association as the research facility for Gray-New Gloucester High School’s Shaker Studies Class -- a program begun in 1981. The class has been taught since 1981 by Robert Boggs, a member of the history faculty. The Shaker community and the village staff are integrated into the year long senior honors course.

Volunteers are currently working on cataloging and preserving collections of slides, post cards, newspaper clippings and videos. The Library recently received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant that will fund a study to increase storage areas and environmental security.

Hours and Directions

The Shaker Library is open year round Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm (closed for dinner 12 Noon -1:00 pm). Appointments Required

The Shaker Library is located in the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village at 707 Shaker Road in New Gloucester. The Village is eight miles from Exits 63 and 75 of the Maine Turnpike.