Stature among members of a nineteenth century American Shaker commune

A set of heights of white men, women and children who lived in a Shaker commune near Albany, New York between 1840 and 1865 is analysed. Since the Shakers practiced celibacy, members were recruited from outside the commune, so that their stature to some extent reflects living standards in the antebellum northeast United States. Despite small sample sizes, some conclusions may be stated. Heights among birth cohorts of adult Shaker men fluctuated within a narrow range along the trends of military samples, but were much shorter than military samples. Successive birth cohorts of adult women became generally shorter over the first decades of the century, associated with the influx of very short urbanites. Shaker women, even in relative terms, were much shorter than Shaker men, which may reflect broader sexual differences in net nutrition. Although in weight-for-height terms entering Shaker children were not undernourished, they were shorter than children in samples for somewhat later American populations. Members of both sexes grew taller with a longer duration of Shaker upbringing.