Flo Morse: The Story of the Shakers (1986)

Flo Morse's book is only short – about one hundred pages – but there's a great deal of information in it.

What I didn't say in my post below is that the Shakers were so named due to the frenzy they worked themselves up into in their worship of God. Such behavior led to some being imprisoned in Manchester, England, for disturbance of the peace or profanation of the Sabbath. Ann Lee (1736–84) was one of the imprisoned people, and it was there that this illiterate factory worker – the daughter of a blacksmith – had her vision and felt the spirit of Christ entering her. Originally from a Quaker sect, she went on to be the leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as Shakers.

But Mancunians believed she was a witch and stoned her. With a small group of followers she left England for New York in May 1774. A few years later, during the American Revolution, the tiny group of Shakers that had established itself in Niskayuna, New York state, received a number of visitors consisting of the serious-minded and the curious.

Lee gained converts, some of whom went back to their nearby towns to spread the word, but at the beginning the Shakers weren't accepted in America either, saw Lee as a witch and Shakerism as splitting belief in the established churches and (because of its advocacy of celibacy) of splitting families. Lee – though seeing sex even in marriage as a sin – obviously realised that abstinence is not for everyone, and must have to some extent seen the paradoxical nature of a religion with a built-in self-destruct button: she said that those incapable of being a Shaker were committing the least sinful thing by remaining servants to their families.

Ann Lee died in 1784 and James Whittaker (1751–87) became leader, dedicating the first meeting house in New Lebanon, New York state, but wore himself out in the task and it was left to Joseph Meacham to set up a number of independent village-communes. Shakers – as also mentioned in the post below – believed in equality of the sexes, and Lucy Wright from Pittsfield was Meacham's equal in sharing his work. Ten years after Ann Lee's death, ten Shaker communities – from the Berkshires down to Connecticut, through Massachusetts, up to New Hampshire and Maine – had been established.

The book tells of the famous author Charles Dickens traveling to the New Lebanon community at the end of an American tour in 1842, but being refused to see the Shakers at prayer. It quotes a little from Dickens's American Notes of his 'revenge', but this is very interesting albeit, er, very repetitive, grim stuff and I quote below all of Dickens's words on the event, using my italics:

We had yet five days to spare before embarking for England, and I had a great desire to see ‘the Shaker Village,’ which is peopled by a religious sect from whom it takes its name.

To this end, we went up the North River again, as far as the town of Hudson, and there hired an extra to carry us to Lebanon, thirty miles distant [...].

[W]e went to visit our place of destination, which was some two miles off, and the way to which was soon indicated by a finger-post, whereon was painted, ‘To the Shaker Village.’

As we rode along, we passed a party of Shakers, who were at work upon the road; who wore the broadest of all broad-brimmed hats; and were in all visible respects such very wooden men, that I felt about as much sympathy for them, and as much interest in them, as if they had been so many figure-heads of ships. Presently we came to the beginning of the village, and alighting at the door of a house where the Shaker manufactures are sold, and which is the headquarters of the elders, requested permission to see the Shaker worship.

Pending the conveyance of this request to some person in authority, we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock which uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim silence reluctantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall were six or eight stiff, high-backed chairs, and they partook so strongly of the general grimness that one would much rather have sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of them.

Presently, there stalked into this apartment, a grim old Shaker, with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold, as the great round metal buttons on his coat and waistcoat; a sort of calm goblin. Being informed of our desire, he produced a newspaper wherein the body of elders, whereof he was a member, had advertised but a few days before, that in consequence of certain unseemly interruptions which their worship had received from strangers, their chapel was closed to the public for the space of one year.

As nothing was to be urged in opposition to this reasonable arrangement, we requested leave to make some trifling purchases of Shaker goods; which was grimly conceded. We accordingly repaired to a store in the same house and on the opposite side of the passage, where the stock was presided over by something alive in a russet case, which the elder said was a woman; and which I suppose was a woman, though I should not have suspected it.

On the opposite side of the road was their place of worship: a cool, clean edifice of wood, with large windows and green blinds: like a spacious summer-house. As there was no getting into this place, and nothing was to be done but walk up and down, and look at it and the other buildings in the village (which were chiefly of wood, painted a dark red like English barns, and composed of many stories like English factories), I have nothing to communicate to the reader, beyond the scanty results I gleaned the while our purchases were making.

These people are called Shakers from their peculiar form of adoration, which consists of a dance, performed by the men and women of all ages, who arrange themselves for that purpose in opposite parties: the men first divesting themselves of their hats and coats, which they gravely hang against the wall before they begin; and tying a ribbon round their shirt-sleeves, as though they were going to be bled. They accompany themselves with a droning, humming noise, and dance until they are quite exhausted, alternately advancing and retiring in a preposterous sort of trot. The effect is said to be unspeakably absurd: and if I may judge from a print of this ceremony which I have in my possession; and which I am informed by those who have visited the chapel, is perfectly accurate; it must be infinitely grotesque.

They are governed by a woman, and her rule is understood to be absolute, though she has the assistance of a council of elders. She lives, it is said, in strict seclusion, in certain rooms above the chapel, and is never shown to profane eyes. If she at all resemble the lady who presided over the store, it is a great charity to keep her as close as possible, and I cannot too strongly express my perfect concurrence in this benevolent proceeding.

All the possessions and revenues of the settlement are thrown into a common stock, which is managed by the elders. As they have made converts among people who were well to do in the world, and are frugal and thrifty, it is understood that this fund prospers: the more especially as they have made large purchases of land. Nor is this at Lebanon the only Shaker settlement: there are, I think, at least, three others.

They are good farmers, and all their produce is eagerly purchased and highly esteemed. ‘Shaker seeds,’ ‘Shaker herbs,’ and ‘Shaker distilled waters,’ are commonly announced forsale in the shops of towns and cities. They are good breeders of cattle, and are kind and merciful to the brute creation. Consequently, Shaker beasts seldom fail to find a ready market.

They eat and drink together, after the Spartan model, at a great public table. There is no union of the sexes, and every Shaker, male and female, is devoted to a life of celibacy. Rumour has been busy upon this theme, but here again I must refer to the lady of the store, and say, that if many of the sister Shakers resemble her, I treat all such slander as bearing on its face the strongest marks of wild improbability. But that they take as proselytes, persons so young that they cannot know their own minds, and cannot possess much strength of resolution in this or any other respect, I can assert from my own observation of the extreme juvenility of certain youthful Shakers whom I saw at work among the party on the road.

They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to be honest and just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist those thievish tendencies which would seem, for some undiscovered reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their gloomy, silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere with other people.

This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path towards the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren the imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power of raising up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet unborn, no better than the beasts: that, in these very broad-brimmed hats and very sombre coats—in stiff-necked, solemn-visaged piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo temple—I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor world, not into wine, but gall. And if there must be people vowed to crush the harmless fancies and the love of innocent delights and gaieties, which are a part of human nature: as much a part of it as any other love or hope that is our common portion: let them, for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious; the very idiots know that they are not on the Immortal road, and will despise them, and avoid them readily.

Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the strong probability of their running away as they grow older and wiser, which they not uncommonly do: we returned to Lebanon, and so to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day.


The Story of the Shakers adds that Dickens wrote from hearsay all the unpleasant things he'd heard about the Shakers, and this would appear to be true: in his very brief visit, he couldn't possibly have seen all that he describes. There was much malicious gossip about the Shakers in the outside community. Certainly some Shakers were lured away from the communes, and 'winter Shakers' put up with the ceremonies they secretly thought ridiculous for a warm home until the better weather came. But why is there no mention of pregnancies within the Shaker community, as I can't believe that they didn't occur: perhaps the women left before it became obvious?

One thing that — for a time at least — ensured the survival of the Shakers was the fact that they took in orphans and unwanted children. But only between 10% and 20% of the children remained permanently in the Shaker community.

A major problem that presented itself was the Civil War: the Shakers were pacifists. But the New Lebanon group had a good leader in Frederick William Evans (who with his brother edited radical newspapers concerning land reform, women's rights and wage slavery): he visited President Lincoln in Washington in 1863 and procured a draft exemption for the Shakers.

Sabbathday Lake Shaker village in Maine is the last remaining active community, with only a few existing members.

This is a fascinating little book about a minor religion that had a surprising influence on society at large.

Hancock Shaker Village, MA

The Shakers date back to 1747, to Manchester, England, and their original leader Ann Lee (1736–84), known as 'Mother Lee'. Due to their persecution in England, Lee decided to move the religious group – which believed in celibacy, pacifism, gender equality, and simple communal living – to America.

Hancock Shaker Village began in the late 1780s. By the mid-19th century the Shaker community had reached its peak of between 4000 to 5000 followers, of whom more than 300 lived in Hancock just a few miles from Pittsfield. In the early 1900s there were only about fifty mainly female members here, and the community ended in 1960.

This long view just gives an idea of the size of the place.

The huge Round Stone Barn that features on the village's advertising logo.

Not a barn but the Laundry and Machine Shop.

Inside the Machine Shop.

The Drying Room.

The huge Brick Dwelling where the Shakers lived from 1830 to 1959. As outside technology improved, so did the technology here.

'ALL PERSONS

ARE FORBID USING

TOBACCO

IN THIS HOUSE'

The following rules apply to visitors:

'At the table we wish all to be as free as at home, but we dislike the wasteful habit of leaving food on the plate. No vice is with us the less ridiculous for being in fashion.'

'Married Persons tarrying with us over night, are respectfully notified that each sex occupy separate sleeping apartments while they remain. This rule will not be departed from under any circumstances.'

Alcoholic drinks were allowed, and fruit wines and ciders were made here.

A view of the cellar.

During the summer and autumn food was preserved for the long winter.

Part of the dining room, where prayers were said before meals, which were eaten in silence.

The community was nevertheless hierarchical, and Deacons oversaw and supervised the work here. Some Deacons were responsible for work made for the outside world.

The Brethren's Shop.

Although the Shakers believed in gender equality and there were no strict rules about work roles, men and women nevertheless tended to fall into traditional gender work patterns, with the men doing the farming, woodwork, metalwork, stonework, etc, and the women the cooking.

Shakers sold brooms and brushes, and the invention of the flat broom is credited to a male Shaker.

Varnished or painted oval boxes were also a popular Shaker product.

Hired labor from outside was used as early as 1826 (for work on the Round Stone Barn), although the community suffered from a shortage of males from the latter half of the 19th century. Hired hands lodged here, away from the Brick Dwelling, and away from young girls in Shaker care.

'IN LOVING MEMORY

OF MEMBERS OF THE

SHAKER CHURCH

WHO DEDICATED THEIR LIVES

TO GOD AND TO THE GOOD OF

HUMANITY'

The Shaker cemetery is to the north-east of the village, and there are no individual graves.

Links to my Utopia posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hancock Shaker Village, MA
Jean-Baptiste Godin and Utopia, Guise, Aisne (02)

Books and Arguments in Great Barrington, MA

I visited the W. E. B. Du Bois National Historic Site after visiting the Bookloft in the Barrington Plaza, which in a way was a good thing because (in spite of the mosquitoes) it allowed me to cool off and concentrate on peace. I've never come across arguments in Barnes & Noble, or Waterstones in England for that matter, but isn't that what independent bookshops are for? A place where you can have a good conversation, argument or whatever?

This is a preliminary to me saying that I really couldn't stand waiting in a line to pay for my books without saying something to the customer in front of me who was yelling at the (rather disinterested, or maybe just plain uninterested, I thought) sales assistant that voting should be compulsory for everyone. Well, when I hear crap like that I just have to react. Politely, I interrupted and said that no one should be forced to vote for the party they least hate, and that as a pacifist I refuse to vote as all political leaders are warmongers. She pretended to partly agree with me, although added that anyone who didn't vote denied their rights to citizenship. Wanting just to pay for my books and get the hell out with my partner Penny,  I then pretended that I didn't know what a citizen is, although this fanatic was obviously more or less trying to tell me that if I didn't support war then I didn't exist, or something like that. (I won't venture to argue much about the opinions on war of the authors of the books I bought.)

The Masachusetts Review (Fall 2013) on 'W. E. B. Dubois in His Time and Ours'.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Collected Poems. (Yeah, I know all about her support for WWII.)

Catharine Maria Sedgwick: The Linwoods. (An abolitionist, but...)

Finally, I re-post my shot of the mockingbird originally actually taken in Barrington Plaza three years ago. We ended the trip back here (avoiding the bookstore) with me drinking a blueberry smoothie and regretting the absence of any birds this time, but reflecting on the words of Harper Lee (via Atticus Finch).

W. E. B. Du Bois relatives buried in Great Barrington, MA

'"IN 1950 THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY HAD FOR ME SPECIAL

MEANING. I WAS A WIDOWER. THE WIFE OF 53 YEARS LAY

BURIED IN THE NEW ENGLAND HILLS BESIDE HER FIRST-BORN

BOY"

W. E. B. DUBOIS (1868-1963)

PREMIER ARCHITECT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

ERECTED BY THE GREAT BARRINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

1994'

'NINA GOMER DU BOIS

1870  –––––  1950'

Burghardt was Du Bois's infant son. His daughter Yolande was also buried here in Mahaiwe Cemetery, Great Barrington, although I didn't find any grave with her name.

W. E. B. Du Bois in Great Barrington, MA (revisited)

'W. E. B. Du Bois

Boyhood Homesite

University of Massachusetts Amherst'

This leaflet is published by the W. E. B. Du Bois National Historic Homesite and its title states 'It is time to honor this influential African American'. On the reverse it says that this is the 'only public place in the United States' dedicated to the life and ideals of Du Bois (1868–1963). I hadn't been aware of the place when I first visited Great Barrington in 2011, so took the opportunity to do so this time.

A trail with seven information posts like the one above weave through the (this mid-June, mosquito-infested) woods, each giving fresh details about what the leaflet describes as 'a scholar, a champion of civil rights, and an international activist for peace' who 'fought for democracy and freedom in a world of racial and economic injustice'. I can think of no one of his stature who exists today, although the world is still very much in great need of such a person.

This boulder was placed here in 1969 by the W. E. B. Du Bois Memorial Committee to commemorate the man's life and work. By the boulder is a plaque which contains a number of quotations apparently written by Julian Bond, the most chilling of which I thought was this so very true sentence:

'Violence is an economy that believes in socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.'

This site is a mile or so from Great Barrington itself, where Du Bois was born on Church Street. The small photo on the marker above shows Mary Silvina Burghardt with her son William in 1868. He moved here, with his mother and half-brother Idelbert, to the home of his grandparents Othello and Sally Burghardt when he was two. By the time he was five he had moved back to Great Barrington, although in 'The House of the Black Burghardts' (1928) he says that this is 'the first home that I remember'.

Du Bois always maintained a sentimental attachment for the house, and in 1928, on his 60th birthday, a group of his friends throughout the country gave the house to him. By 1954 the house was in a very bad state of repair and Du Bois, at the age of 84, sold the house to a neighbor who demolished it.

To the left of the platform above this photo, the remains of the chimney.

On another information panel is a beautiful quotation by W. E. B. Du Bois, from his book I Take My Stand for Peace (1951):

'I want progress; I want education; I want social medicine; I want a living wage and old-age security; I want employment for all and relief for the unemployed and the sick; I want public works, public services, and public improvements. I want freedom for my people. And because I know and you know that we cannot have these things, and at the same time fight, destroy and kill all around the world in order to make huge profit for big business – for that reason, I take my stand behind the millions in every nation and continent and cry Peace – No More War!'

Elizabeth Fry (1774–1832), by Robert Hughes

Letter from Mollie Tanner, 27 March 2003

Lionel Britton (1887–1971) has been referred to many times here as Dr Tony Shaw is the world authority on this eccentric writer who was also my great-uncle. In the course of researching my family tree I have had enormous assistance from Tony, as well as from a number of cousins including David Guillaume, who has very kindly shown me Mollie Tanner's letter from which two of these images are taken.

Other articles have dealt with Samuel Thomas (1807–78), Lionel Britton's great-grandfather. Samuel married Mary Retallack in the parish of Stoke Damerel (broadly Devonport, Devon) on 2 September 1829, but until recently it was not clear who her parents were as there were several possible contenders within the parish, none of them convincing.

Now it emerges that Mary was born 8 November 1807, but her baptism was delayed until 18 March 1810, when she was baptised at the same time as her younger sister Elizabeth. The parents were John Retallack and Elizabeth.

We have a dramatic and poignant record of the death of Elizabeth Retallack, buried 'at the same time' as her younger daughter. The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of the time described a raging cholera epidemic, but while the few named deaths did not include the Elizabeth Retallacks, mother or daughter, the paper had the temerity to declare that those not surviving were 'confined to the lowest orders'! Whoever wrote that ought to be horsewhipped, and your man for that would be the Samuel Thomas mentioned above, who was the protagonist in the notorious Redditch Horsewhipping Case of 1865, an affair which made the newspapers all over the kingdom!

The burial record for Elizabeth Retallack gives her as 55. Of all marriage records which come up on Findmypast between a John Retallack and an Elizabeth, the only persuasive one is 14 Mar 1805, in the parish of Antony, in Cornwall, between John Retallack and Elizabeth Fry. The only convincing Elizabeth Fry would be baptised in the nearby parish of Maker on 8 Jun 1774. At her death she would have been 58, not 55. The records generally are very unreliable about the ages of ladies in middle age and this discrepancy is in itself no show-stopper.

What is needed then is some other evidence that this couple were indeed the parents of Mary Retallack who was born in Devonport. Firstly, the parishes of Antony and Maker are just across Plymouth Sound from Devonport. All other records which might compete come from quite a long way further afield in Cornwall. An Elizabeth who marries a John Retallack in Roche and would have been exactly the right age turns out to have had a huge brood of children in Roche and never went near Devonport, while nothing else in the records comes even close.

So while it is gratifying to know about my Cornish ancestry (the Retallack heartland is centred around St Columb) and that I cannot be called an 'emmet' any more on my sojourns in that lovely county, there is also the need to feel confident that Elizabeth Fry was indeed my great-great-great-great-grandmother. Here a little snippet of family legend about a Fry connection would help...and bingo! We have one.

David Guillaume was researching the family tree in 2003 and received a letter from Mollie Tanner in which she asked for a little help on a topic never prompted by him. The images are reasonably clear, even though written by a lady coming up to 97 years old, and she says that she had a 'beautiful ivory fan with the initials E.F.' which she believed to be Elizabeth Fry. Now, she thought this might have been the Elizabeth Fry who was a famous prison reformer, but the only clear evidence handed down to her was that 'one of the Thomas family was a Miss Fry'.

A possibility then would be that the Jane who was Samuel Thomas' mother in the Bitton baptism of 1807 was Jane Fry, but no records support this. One of the children of Samuel Thomas and Mary Retallack might have married a Fry, but again there is no such record.

The ivory fan will have belonged to Elizabeth Fry, but not the noted reformer, just Elizabeth Fry from Maker who died of cholera at the same time as her youngest daughter.

Family history is not always about the sensational find of a connection to fame and celebrity, but more satisfying when, however poignantly, it reveals reality.

The Hall of Fame, The Bronx, NYC

The splendid Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx Community College off University Avenue contains ninety-eight busts. As my main interest is in writers, I only photographed a certain number of these busts, although I give the quotation from the plaque under the busts of each of these authors. Unfortunately, virtually all were in shadow.

The above section, and the wing to the left, are devoted to authors.

'WALT WHITMAN

1819 ––––– 1892

IN THIS BROAD EARTH OF OURS,

AMID THE MEASURELESS GROSSNESS AND THE SLAG

ENCLOSED AND SAFE WITHIN ITS CENTRAL HEART,

NESTLES THE SEED PERFECTION.'

'SIDNEY LANIER

1842 ––––– 1881

...WEAKNESS, IN FREEDOM, GROWS STRONGER

THAN STRENGTH WITH A CHAIN.'

'JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

1789 ––––– 1851

I NOW FEEL MORTIFIED AND GRIEVED WHEN I MEET WITH

AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN WHO PROFESSES ANYTHING BUT LIBERAL OPINIONS

AS RESPECTS THE RIGHTS OF HIS FELLOW-CREATURES'

'HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

1811 ––––– 1896

I WOULD WRITE SOMETHING THAT WOULD MAKE THIS WHOLE

MAKE THIS NATION FEEL WHAT A CURSED THING SLAVERY IS'

'JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY

1814 ––––– 1877

I VENTURE TO HOPE THAT THE LOVERS OF HUMAN PROGRESS AND THE

LOVERS OF DISINTERESTED VIRTUE MAY FIND ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE

DEEP-TAILED HISTORY OF AN HEROIC PEOPLE IN ITS MOST EVENTFUL PERIOD'

'SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS

1835 ––––– 1910

LOYALTY TO PETRIFIED OPINION NEVER YET BROKE A CHAIN

OR FREED A HUMAN SOUL'

'FRANCIS PARKMAN

1823 ––––– 1893

THE NARRATOR MUST SEEK TO IMBUE HIMSELF WITH THE

LIFE AND SPIRIT OF TIME – HE MUST HIMSELF BE AS IT WERE

A SHARER OR A SPECTATOR OF THE ACTION HE DESCRIBES'

'EDGAR ALLAN POE

1809 ––––– 1849

A POEM DESERVES ITS TITLE ONLY IN AS MUCH

AS IT EXCITES BY ELEVATING THE SOUL'

'GEORGE BANCROFT

1800 ––––– 1891

HISTORY INTERPOSES WITH THE EVIDENCE THAT TYRANNY AND WRONG

LEAD INEVITABLY TO DECAY – THAT FREEDOM AND RIGHT –

HOWEVER HARD MAY BE THE STRUGGLE ALWAYS PROVE RESISTLESS'

'WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

1794 ––––– 1878

SO LIVE THAT WHEN THY SUMMONS COMES THOU GO NOT LIKE THE QUARRY

SLAVE AT NIGHT SCOURGED TO HIS DUNGEON BUT SUSTAINED AND SOOTHED

BY AN UNFALTERING TRUST. APPROACH THE GRAVE LIKE ONE WHO WRAPS THE

DRAPERY OF HIS COUCH ABOUT HIM, AND LIES DOWN TO PLEASANT DREAMS'

'JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

1807 ––––– 1892

MAKING HIS RUSTIC REED OF SONG – A WEAPON IN THE WAR WITH WRONG

YOKING HIS FANCY TO THE BREAKING-PLOUGH

THAT BEAM-DEEP TURNED THE SOIL FOR TRUTH TO SPRING AND GROW'

'OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

1809 ––––– 1894

BUILD THEE MORE STATELY MANSIONS O MY SOUL

AS THE SWIFT SEASONS ROLL

LEAVE THY LOW-VAULTED PAST'

'JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

1819 ––––– 1891

NO POWER CAN DIE THAT EVER WROUGHT FOR TRUTH

THEREBY A LAW OF NATURE IT BECAME

AND LIVES UNWITHERED IN ITS BLITHESOME YOUTH

WHEN HE WHO CALLED IT FORTH IS BUT A NAME'

'RALPH WALDO EMERSON

1803 ––––– 1882

THE DAY IS ALWAYS HIS WHO WORKS IN IT WITH SERENITY AND GREAT AIMS

THE UNSTABLE ESTIMATES OF MEN CROWD TO HIM WHOSE MIND IS FILLED

WITH THE TRUTH AS THE HEAPED WAVES OF THE ATLANTIC FOLLOW THE MOON'

'NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

1804 ––––– 1864

LIVING IN SOLITUDE TILL THE FULLNESS

OF TIME I STILL KEPT THE DEW OF MY YOUTH

AND THE FRESHNESS OF MY HEART'

'HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

1807 –––– 1882

THE DISTANT MOUNTAINS THAT UPREAR THEIR SOLID BASTIONS TO THE SKIES ARE CROSSED BY PATHWAYS

THAT APPEAR AS WE TO HIGHER LEVELS RISE – THE HEIGHTS BY GREAT MEN REACHED WERE NOT

ATTAINED BY SUDDEN FLIGHT, BUT THEY, WHILE THEIR COMPANIONS SLEPT, WERE TOILING UPWARD IN THE NIGHT.'

'WASHINGTON IRVING

1783 ––––– 1859

THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HIS FELLOWMEN IS EVER

NEW, ACTIVE AND IMMEDIATE – LONG MAY MEN CHERISH HIS RENOWN.

IT HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY THE DILIGENT DISPENSATION OF PLEASURE'

I took several more images of people not in the writers' section because I just couldn't leave them out. I forget which section Thoreau was in, for instance, but, oddly, not with the writers.

'THOMAS PAINE

1737 –––––– 1809

THOSE WHO EXPECT TO REAP THE BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM

MUST, LIKE MEN, UNDERGO THE FATIGUES OF SUPPORTING IT'

'HENRY DAVID THOREAU

1817 ––––– 1862

ONLY THE DAY DAWNS TO WHICH WE ARE MORE AWAKE.

THERE IS MORE DAY TO DAWN.

THE SUN IS BUT A MORNING STAR.'

'SUSAN B. ANTHONY

1820 ––––– 1906

"... THE DAY WILL COME WHEN MAN WILL RECOGNIZE WOMAN AS HIS PEER.

NOT ONLY AT THE FIRESIDE BUT IN THE COUNCILS OF THE NATION. THEN

WILL THERE BE THE PERFECT COMRADESHIP...BETWEEN THE SEXES

THAT SHALL RESULT IN THE HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACE."'

'JANE ADDAMS

1860 ––––– 1935

WHAT AFTER ALL HAS MAINTAINED THE HUMAN RACE ON THIS OLD GLOBE DESPITE ALL

THE CALAMITIES OF NATURE AND ALL THE TRAGIC FAILINGS OF MANKIND IF NOT FAITH

IN NEW POSSIBILITIES AND COURAGE TO ADVOCATE THEM?'

'BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

1856 ––––– 1915

THE HIGHEST TEST OF THE CIVILIZATION OF A RACE IS ITS WILLINGNESS

TO EXTEND A HELPING HAND TO THE LESS FORTUNATE'

'EMMA WILLARD

1787 ––––– 1870

REASON AND RELIGION TEACH THAT WE TOO ARE PRIMARY EXISTENCES,

THAT IT IS FOR US TO MOVE IN THE ORBIT OF DUTY AROUND THE HOLY

CENTER OF PERFECTION, THE COMPANIONS NOT THE SATELLITES OF MEN'

'ALICE FREEMAN PALMER

1855 ––––– 1902

THE SMALLEST VILLAGE, THE PLAINEST HOME, GIVE AMPLE SPACE

FOR THE RESOURCES OF THE COLLEGE-TRAINED WOMAN'

'HENRY WARD BEECHER

1813 ––––– 1887

IT MATTERS LITTLE TO ME WHAT SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY RISES

OR FALLS, SO ONLY THAT CHRIST MAY RISE IN ALL HIS

GLORY FULL ORBED GLORY UPON THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD'