Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

The Oriental Guide
ca. 1874
John Warren Currier; Armstrong Company
USA: Massachusetts, Boston
Chromolithograph on paper
canvas: 28 in x 22 in x in
Gift of Joseph Cotton
75.18.3

The Oriental Guide Masonic chart; nine polychromatic allegorical scenes of Masonic lore arranged in three horizontal registers, having three vignettes on each register; all-seeing eye at top; large classical building in background, foreground of father time with broken column, urn, and beehive; altar with Bible, square and compasses, three lights, checkered pavement; rainbow of body of water with arc, winged hourglass, anchor, shovel, coffin, shooting star, crecent moon with stars; two men with wheat hanging from tree; pair of gold colored columns with winding staircase, two men at bottom of stairs, five columns on right, and altar with three lights, Bible, square and compasses; men in red clothing fighting with men in blue clothing, two intertweined palm trees; Jacob's ladder with three angels, man sleeping on rock, and one sheep in foreground; round yellow room with four statues representing allegorical figures, three columns, altar with Bible, square and compasses, three lights, apron, charter, square, ashlar stones, and plumb; construction of large building; signed on stone by the artist lower left corner "Jas. W. Currier, Del."; beneath image reads "Copyright by James Warren Currrier, 1874./ Armstrong & Co. Boston/ The Oriental Guide."

In the late 1800s Masons would have used prints like this one to decorate their meeting places. These illustrations articulate some of the stories and symbols Masons used to teach initiates in lectures and rituals. Some of the Masonic symbols seen here also appear on the Beacon Light Eastern Star quilt.