Episode 23 of Cloister Talk Live!, “Incense Hill: A Conversation with Kerry Mohn and Michael Showalter of Historic Ephrata Cloister,” Explores Early Pennsylvania’s Radical Religious Heritage

Few landmarks of early Pennsylvania history inspire awe and capture the imagination quite like Historic Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County—a place of architectural beauty, spiritual devotion, mystical exploration, musical accomplishment, and tremendous historical significance to early-American book production and the manuscript arts.  My trips to Ephrata over the years have been pivotal in shaping my perspectives on the research questions I explore in The Word in the Wilderness: Popular Piety and the Manuscript Arts in Early Pennsylvania, so I am delighted to have been able to make this thought-provoking conversation a part of Cloister Talk Live!

In this episode, Ephrata Curator Kerry Mohn and Museum Educator Michael Showalter guide us through the history and significance of Ephrata and help us place the site within the wider context of early American religion and material culture, with a particular focus on Ephrata’s musical culture.

Listen to “Cloister Talk Live! Incense Hill:  A Conversation with Kerry Mohn and Michael Showalter of Historic Ephrata Cloister” here:

https://anchor.fm/cloistertalk/episodes/Cloister-Talk-Live--Incense-Hill-A-Conversation-with-Kerry-Mohn-and-Michael-Showalter-of-Historic-Ephrata-Cloister-e12mano