While many historical utopian communities sought to live separately from the outside world, their economic survival depended interacting with the public to sell their products. In this photograph (between 1886-1891) from the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Shaker men are pictured with three women visiting the village to buy brooms (on the right).
The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky was established in 1805. Around 500 people resided in the village in the 1820s and the community owned over 4,000 acres of land. Due to declining membership and economic changes in the wider world, 1910, Pleasant Hill closed as an active religious society. The last Shaker, Sister Mary Settles died in 1923. The land, buildings, and furnishings passed into private hands. In 1961, a private nonprofit organization, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, was founded to restore the historic property and today, Pleasant Hill is the largest restored Shaker village offering a hotel, restaurant, and many activities.
Image courtesy of Archives of Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky
Image featured in Discovering Quacks, Utopias, and Cemeteries: Modern Lessons from Historical Themes by Cynthia Resor