Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2021.18.1 |
Object Name |
Negative, Glass-plate |
Description |
Glass plate negative. Dry plate negative of the Enfield Church Family Trustee's Office, with a buggy, driver, and horse standing before it. The image is taken from the vicinity of the gate in the drive in to the mill yard on the west side of the road, looking northeast toward the Trustee's office. Along the road, spanning the width of the image, is a fence with stone posts and wooden rails. Visible in the right foreground is a wagon loading ramp along the fence line, apparently made of wood, it's railings include wooden posts with finials evoking chair posts. On the right beyond the Trustees' Office is the Great Stone Dwelling. In the left foreground is the Backstore, with a piece of the East Brethren's Shop visible beyond. Above the Trustee's Office door is a sign, seemingly in two pieces which read "Trustees' /Office." over "Store." There is a vent pipe through the roof indicating this photo is after 1888 when this building received toilets, but no phone wires so before 1902. |
Credit line |
Gift of Andrew D. Epstein |
Title of photo |
Church Family Trustees' Office with carriage in front |
Date |
ca 1890 |
Place |
Enfield, NH Shaker Village, Church Family |
Material |
Glass |
Lexicon category |
8: Communication Artifact |
Lexicon sub-category |
Documentary Artifact |
Interpretive information |
The Trustees' Office was prominently located immediately adjacent to the Fourth New Hampshire Turnpike (today's State Route 4A) and served as the site of economic interaction between the Shakers and the World. The building housed the offices of the Trustees, a store where the Shakers sold goods to visitors from the World, accommodations for visitors, a substantial kitchen where meals for the visitors could be prepared and many of the foods and sweet treats sold in the store were produced, and work rooms where small manufactures were produced for sale in the store. In addition to these diverse economic activities, it appears that during the waning years of the community the Shaker sisters would move from the Great Stone Dwelling into the Trustees' Office during the winter months. Notes on the wagon loading ramp: This earlier version seems to be made primarily of wood and is on the community side of the fence. Later photos show a second version made of stone and located on the road side of the fence. |
Linked documents |
Click here to read an article about the 2015 archaeological dig at the Trustees' Office in the Museum's newsletter, The Friends' Quarterly. |
Relation |
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