The collection consists mostly of photocopied material written by or about Shakers. Most of the collection was copied from materials found either in the Clarke Historical Library or ordered via inter-library loan. The only materials which are originals in the collection are the Journal of Shaker Studies issues, (the) Clarion, the Correspondence, and Duffield’s Notes.
Materials are organize into the following topical series: Bibliographies, Broadsides, Correspondence (Duffield’s with Shaker organizations), Fiction, Fiction-Tangental (materials that appeared to be about Shakers but was not), Narratives, Nonfiction, Notes (Duffield’s), Periodicals, Poems, Vital Statistics, and Shaker Journals. The series are organized alphabetically, except the Shaker Journals, which are filed last as they require a larger box than the rest of the collection.
Within each series, materials are organized alphabetically by author’s last name or by title, if the author is unidentified. Periodicals include mailing lists and related materials for the Journal of Shaker Studies, various issues of the Manifesto, The Shaker, and (the) Clarion. The Shaker Journals are photocopied manuscripts of journals written by Shakers.
A later addition (Acc#67521) includes articles (copies) with typed transcripts and miscellaneous materials, such as photographs, brochures, postcards, sewing instructions (patterns), and other materials.
Processing Note: All published books and periodicals in the collection have been separately cataloged.
Biography:
Holley Gene Duffield was born in 1934. He has taught at several universities. His publications include Tolstoy and the critics: literature and aesthetics (1965), Problems in criticism of the arts (1967), and Historical dictionary of the Shakers (2000).
Duffield’s interest in Shakers developed from reading short stories and novels of the 19th and 20th centuries about them and modern woodworker journals lauding their furniture. He was thus inspired to visit their defunct villages and Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester, Maine, the home of extant Shakers. In 1994 Duffield founded the Society for Shaker Studies, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge about the sect. In the same year he established the Journal of Shaker Studies, for which he has written several articles. His publications on Shakers have appeared in the Shaker Messenger and the Journal of Kentucky Studies.
Now a retired professor Emeritus of the English Dept. at Central Michigan University, Prof. Duffield and his wife, Pamela, live in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. (This information is from the donor.)
