D.W. Kellogg and Company - Shakers, Their Mode of Worship by D.W. Kellogg and Company - ca 1838 - T-Shirt

This 1838 lithograph by D.W. Kellogg and Company shows Shaker worshippers in the middle of their ecstatic devotional dance, set inside a plain meeting room.

Visual Elements & Composition

The print is built around a rectangular frame divided by a vertical window grid. Its palette is restrained: warm grey dominates the image, lifted by pale cream, off-white and light grey, with charcoal providing the darkest accents. Two lines of figures fill the centre. Shaker women in long dresses and white caps stand in one row, while Shaker men in dark coats and trousers dance in another. The wall behind them holds a row of hanging bonnets, and a seated figure in a hat and a top hat on a bench sit at the edges. The lettering reads SHAKERS. and their mode of Worship.

Meaning & Symbolism

The Shakers, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, earned their name from the rhythmic dancing, marching and singing at the heart of their worship. Those gatherings expressed pure devotion, ecstatic communion with the divine and a break from worldly norms. Kellogg, a prominent Hartford, Connecticut publisher of affordable popular prints, produced this image as an outsider's view during the Second Great Awakening, when American audiences were fascinated by utopian and communal faiths. The lines of men and women, separated and orderly, record how that wider public saw the visible face of Shaker belief.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee is worn close to the body and seen from every angle as the wearer moves, so the two rows of dancers read clearly across the chest and the lettering sits where the eye lands first. The muted grey and cream of the print suit an everyday shirt, and the composition holds its structure across the full front of the garment.