Publications

2nd ed. American Communal Societies Series, no. 12. 365 pages with 106 b/w illustrations + 1 folded map, 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-937370-19-0 ($50)

This work “dramatically expands our demographic knowledge of one of America’s most important communal utopian movements, the Harmony Society of George Rapp. This volume offers an indispensable resource for scholars, descendants, and those who interpret the Harmony Society for the public at its three historic towns of Harmony and Old Economy village in Pennsylvania and New Harmony, Indiana.” (Donald E. Pitzer)

About the author:
Eileen Aiken English is a volunteer researcher and historical interpreter at Old Economy Village. Her study of the Harmony Society began fourteen years ago, when she retired from the faculty of California University of Pennsylvania.

358 pages, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-937370-20-6 ($50)

A comprehensive collection of more than thirty Iroquois language documents from the Samuel Kirkland Papers at Hamilton College. Dating from 1768-1803, these manuscripts have been transcribed, transliterated, and translated, many for the first time. The volume includes line-by-line photographic illustrations of each letter, along with the translator’s work. Each document is then given in full facsimile, and full translation. Introductory essays by the compilers examine Iroquois literacy and linguistics as illustrated by the documents.

Shaker Studies, no. 11. 428 pages, 2016. Illustrations (some color)
ISBN: 978-1-937370-18-3 ($35)

Robert White’s spiritual journey eventually led him to the Shakers, but, much to his dismay, his wife did not share his views and remained committed to Quakerism. As a married, celibate Believer, Robert White had to balance the often-conflicting roles he played in his two families, natural and Shaker. How he functioned as a Shaker convert living “in the world” is a story of faith and challenges; an exceptional Shaker experience in the mid-nineteenth century.

181 pages, Upstate Institute and Richard W. Couper Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-937370-21-3 ($35)

Freemasonry played a vital role in the social development of New York State. Its Lodges provided a trusted place for newcomers to meet and for friendships and business partnerships to develop, free from political, professional, and sectarian differences. During its explosive growth from 1790 to the end of the 1820s Masonic brethren produced iconic architecture, as well as extraordinary examples of folk art, expressed in large symbolic paintings (“tracing boards”), murals, textiles, and graphics. Most of these have remained entirely unknown outside the Upstate Lodges that, against all hazards, have preserved them. Their symbolism seems mysterious and confusing to outsiders, but once explained, it gives insight into a period and place unique in American history.

Joscelyn Godwin is professor of music at Colgate University. Christian Goodwillie is director and curator of Special Collections, Burke Library, Hamilton College. Marianita Peaslee is the digital imagery specialist, Burke Library, Hamilton College.

• From the Editor
• “The Most Lamentable Tragedy”: William Pennebaker and the 1871 Fracas at Pleasant Hill by Aaron Genton
• Bibliography of Publications by Shaker Physicians William Pennebaker and Frank Tripp compiled by Randall L. Ericson
• Prospects for Research on the Community of True Inspiration by Philip E. Webber
• Room(s) for More: A Communal Dwelling or Family Home at Ephrata by Jeff Bach and Nick Siegert
• The Founding Fathers and the Shakers by Christian Goodwillie

Front cover illustration: The print “Les Shakers de Lebanon executant leur danse religieuse,” inserted between pp. 124-25 of Harriet Martineau, “Les trembleurs et la société de amis,” Le voleur, gazette des journaux français 7me année, no. 10 (7. marz 1838): 112-15; 7me année, no. 11 (14. marz 1838): [121]-22.

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• From the Editor
• An Interview with Marc Demarest
• An Interview with David Newell and Cass Nawrocki
• A Bibliography of Shaker-Authored and Shaker-Related Articles in Spiritualist Periodicals by David Newell and Cass Nawrocki
• A Gold Blossom: Practice, Rhetorical Invention, and Spirit Control in in Amanda Jones’s Psychic Autobiography by Elizabeth Lowry
• Light and Dark Sides of Spiritualism: The Eddy Brothers and the Shakers by Christian Goodwillie
• Document: “A Young Shaker Among the Eddys”
• Hamilton College Library “Home Notes”

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• From the Editor
• A New Shaker Bibliography: Progress Report by Randall L. Ericson
• A Chapter on the Shakers: Reprint by Isaac Hill
• Hamilton College Library “Home Notes”
• Communal Societies Collection: New Acquisitions

Front cover illustration: Jemima Wilkinson, leader of the Universal Friends. For the Act of Incorporation for Universal Friends see “Home Notes,” pp. 104-12

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209 pages with 13 black and white illustrations, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-937370-17-6 ($20)

Distills an oral history project that began in 1995 under the auspices of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College in Clinton N.Y. Excerpts drawn from 325 one-on-one sessions conducted for the Archive are organized into categories including first-hand accounts of life on the road, inspiration, race and jazz, improvisation, and work inside the studios. Interviewees quoted in the book include icons in jazz world such as Joe Williams, Dave and Iola Brubeck, Jon Hendricks, Steve Allen, and Marian McPartland. Stories from unsung sidemen offer a rare perspective on the life and times of jazz artists who balance the love of music with the sacrifice inherent in the jazz lifestyle. The author provides informative commentary with personal insights into the accomplishments and personalities of over one hundred jazz artists.

• From the Editor
• Voices That Heard and Accepted the Call of God by Stephen J. Paterwic
• Hamilton College Library “Home Notes”
• Communal Societies Collection: New Acquisitions

Front cover illustration: Peace: One Nation, One Language, One Flag, One Speech. [n.p., n.d.]. A poster from the Father Divine collection recently added to the Communal Societies Collection, Hamilton College Library. For more information see p. 40.

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2nd ed.  American Communal Societies Series, no. 11. 597 pages, 2015.
ISBN: 978-1-937370-15-2 ($75)

Commune! The word conjures up images of a few isolated idealists, religious fanatics, and social misfits. A commune is a decidedly marginal blip on the American landscape. Nevertheless communes have studded American history — many thousands of them from the seventeenth century to the present. Although many have heard of the Shakers and (perhaps) the Hutterites and the Harmonists, communes — most of which now prefer to be known as intentional communities — represent a largely hidden slice of American history, despite the fact that they have been home to over a million Americans. Many small studies and surveys of American communal movements have been published over the last two hundred years, but the phenomenon of communal living in its fullness remains largely in the shadows. This work has been compiled to dispel those shadows by providing brief sketches of as many American intentional communities as I have been able to identify from the early days of European colonization down to the present [approximately 3,000]. The work also seeks to provide a few reliable references to primary and secondary sources of information on each community. This second edition contains descriptions of twenty additional communities, and additions and corrections to descriptions of over one hundred communities included in the first edition.

About the author:
Timothy Miller is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He studies new religious movements in the United States, with a special focus on groups in the past and present that practice communal living.