Shaker Medicinal Herbs: A Compendium of History, Lore, and Uses

This vibrant revision of a vintage treatise on medicinal herbs documents Shaker usage of 300 plants, shrubs, and trees. This edition features botanical drawings painted in 1880 by Sister Cora Helena Sarle, Shaker seed labels, catalogs, diary excerpts, and more. Published in association with Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass.

"...an attractive and informative book offering an insightful view into the longest lived of all Shaker industries." -- Brother Arnold Hadd, United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine

Because the Shakers were a small community, an epidemic disease could significantly reduce their numbers. The health of each individual was thus of the utmost importance.

Drawing upon Native American plant knowledge and keeping extensive medical records, they became self-sufficient in maintaining good health through the use of herbs.

From this modest beginning, born of necessity, the Shakers became the first people in the United States to produce herbs on a scale large enough to supply the pharmaceutical market. Furthermore, their unwavering honesty and workmanship brought herbal medicine to a new level of respectability.

The Shakers were their own best historians and left us a wealth of journals, letters, and publications. Shaker Medicinal Herbs is filled with writings by Shaker herbalists, 19th-century physicians, neighboring farmers, visiting writers, and Shaker sisters and brethern. This edition also contains authentic Shaker botanical drawings, seed labels, catalogs and diary excerpts, plus an illustrated herbal compendium of more than 300 plants, shrubs, and trees the Shakers used medicinally.

Shakers of the 19th century didn't concern themselves with the mere ornamental attributes of the herbs and flowers that surrounded their communities. They found evidence of God's grandeur in usefulness and purpose, so it is not surprising that they were at the forefront of 19th-century herbal medicine.

As the Shakers' expertise grew, and their herb gardens expanded into vast farms, Shaker catalogs became the principal herb resource for physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry.

The new edition of Amy Bess Miller's classic work Shaker Herbs is a first-hand account of the Shakers' natural evolution as entrepreneurs and healers, and documents their daily work with more than 300 medicinal herbs.

A long-time friend of the Canterbury and Hancock Shakers, Amy Bess Miller was the prime mover in founding the Hancock Shaker Village in 1960 when the last Shakers living there had to sell their land. It comes as no surprise that this active and motivated woman was President of the Board of Trustees at Hancock Shaker Village for more than 30 years upon her retirement. A Shaker herbs and cooking expert, Amy is the author of The Best of Shaker Cooking and Storey's Shaker Medicinal Herbs. Amy lives in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts.