The Shaker saying “Hands to work, hearts to God” is credited to Mother Ann Lee. In 1774 she and eight followers sailed from England to New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art writes that the Shakers “labored for the good of the community as a form of worship.”
The Shakers also made chairs and boxes for sale to outsiders. Their catalogues showed hundreds of chairs, and the Shakers “trumpeted their attention to detail and quality.” In the mid-1870s the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, New York, began to mark their chairs with gold trademark decals. They wanted buyers to tell their chairs apart from imitations.
Ann Lee could not read or write. An 1875 book gives the saying as “Put your hands to work and give your hearts to God.”