Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Masonic Tracing Board
1818
Jonas Prentiss (1777-1832)
USA: Massachusetts, West Cambridge
Oil on canvas
frame: 77-9/16"h x 47-7/16"w x 2-1/4"d
Gift of Hiram Lodge, A.F. & A.M., Arlington, Massachusetts
91.048

Masonic Tracing board with Masonic symbols including: a pair of columns, pediment, arch and checkered floor; a sun, trowel, square and compass and various other small symbols in painted frame. Inscribed on back of canvas: "Painted by Jonas Prentiss, West Cambridge, Feby 18th, 1818". Frame originally hinged vertically for storage.

In joining Freemasonry, men sought to learn moral and spiritual lessons in the lodge and then to apply these lessons in everyday life. Members taught new initiates about Masonry through lectures accompanied by teaching aids, such as tracing boards depicting Masonic symbols like this one; originally, they illustrated lectures with painted canvases, called “master’s carpets,” that could be rolled up when not in use. Later versions of these teaching tools, like this one, hung on the lodge room walls. Masonic aprons were decorated with some of the same symbols illustrated on tracing boards, certificates and other objects associated with Freemasonry. For further information, see Newell, Aimee E., "The Badge of a Freemason," 2015, p. 64; and Hamilton, John D., "Material Culture of American Freemasons," 1994, p. 42-43.