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Shaker gift drawings
Here we see a mid-19th century Shaker vision image, known as a gift drawing, by Hannah Cohoon. She called it "A Bower of Mulberry Trees", from what she distinctly saw during an 1854 meeting "painted upon a large white sheet and held up over the brethren's heads." Later the spirit showed her closer views of the leaves as well, so although most gift drawings are unsigned and appear to be geometrically planned for symbolism (making the visionary authenticity uncertain), Hannah's drawing is well documented. Gift drawings were frequent, spiritually significant, and beautiful, yet of thousands drawn few remain. The Shakers were an 18th century English Christian sect that separated from the Quakers, and were so called for the ecstatic spirit speaking, dancing, whirling, singing, and visioning they encouraged as proofs of union with God, in spite of the fact that ornamentation outside of the worship service was banned. Formally known as the "United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming", Shakerism grew famously in 19th century America. But celibate and pacifist, Shakers would not ally with other movements, not even the rising Spiritualists who shared their zeal for spirit contact but were judged to be too worldly, and Shakerism soon declined to the near extinction it is known for today.
[ref. (1) Utopian Visions, Mysteries of the Unknown series, Time-Life Books, 1990, and (2) Spirit Summonings, Mysteries of the Unknown series, Time-Life Books, 1989 ]

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