Rocking Chair

Rocking Chair

United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (“Shakers”)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Previously reserved for the elderly and infirm, rocking chairs became ubiquitous in America after the Revolution. The Shakers produced slat-back rocking chairs both for their own use and for sale to the outside world. On this example, the oval finials, round hand grips, and shaped blades suggest it was made in the New Lebanon, New York, community.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.