Tour of the Shakers Spiritual Landscape

A surprising tour of local sites considered sacred by the Shakers. Driving tour led by Prof. Doug Winiarski of Univ. of Richmond. Join Doug Winiarski, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Richmond, and Theresa Frey-Alexander, Curator of Education and Interpretation at Shaker Heritage Society on a mind-bending driving tour of the “Spiritual City of Wisdom’s Valley,” an ancient spirit metropolis located on the Watervliet Shaker Village. In 1842 Shaker instruments saw Wisdom’s Valley as an invisible walled city enclosing mammoth spirit trees, glistening spiritual fountains, soaring apartment buildings, and luxuriant gardens and vineyards. Full of surprising revelations of Shaker beliefs and theology, the tour will traverse a long-forgotten spiritual landscape that now sprawls across familiar locations, including Albany International Airport, Memory Gardens Cemetery, and Shaker Ridge Country Club. The tour will begin at Shaker Heritage Society and procede to caravan to various sites where we'll congregate to listen to stories of Shaker spiritual life during the famed Era of Manifestations (1837–1850s). Carpooling encouraged! Winiarski is the editor of Shakers at the Center: Manifesting Spirits & Spectacles in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2026).