The collection of Shaker furniture at the Art Complex Museum is widely recognized among authorities for its quality and fine examples of classic Shaker design. The initial interest in things Shaker came from Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn, whose home in the Berkshires was close to the Hancock and New Lebanon Shaker communities. Mrs. Sanborn became active with the restoration of Hancock Shaker Village through her friendship with it's president, Amy Bess Miller.

This interest was passed along to her son Carl Weyerhaeuser and later to his son Charles, the ACM's current Director. Their dedication to the Shaker aesthetic has resulted in a discriminating collection of furniture and artifacts of daily life. The collection currently totals more than 500 pieces, some of which have been unanimously praised and admired, as well as borrowed for important exhibitions and reproduced in definitive books on Shaker furniture.