Shaker Museum: Miniature Display

I think miniaturist have an ability to sniff out miniatures wherever they go.  Sure enough in my first day of vacationing in Massachusetts we went to the Shaker Museum about 15 minutes from our resort in New York and discovered a display of miniature shaker furniture, room boxes and even one complete dollhouse.  They displays were behind glass, so please excuse the light reflection.  I turned off my flash, but I still haven't grasped the skill of completely getting rid of the reflection.

The collection is owned by Darlene Kohrhan.  The pieces are made by Alice and Gus Schwerdtfeger and James Hastrich.  These three artisans have created miniature masterpieces.

There was a complete shaker dollhouse on display there.  The house was built by Marian Cox "Wiggy" Williams.  When the Shaker Museum first open in the 1950's, the visitors to the museum were allowed to visit the public rooms, but not their homes. So the dollhouse was built to show the public what the private homes looked like and how they functioned.  It's amazing it's still in such good shape.  Here are pictures of the rooms of the dollhouse.

The drawings below were done by June Sprigg.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed visiting the museum.  If you ever get to New Lebanon, NY, don't forget to drop by the museum.  Unfortunately the miniature display is only showing until Sept 7th.    You can read more on the display at this link.

More on all my miniature experiences from my vacation in my coming postings.  

Until the next time...

Wanda