Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Masonic 3rd Degree Mort or Tracing Board
1823-1845
John Harris (attributed)
England
Oil on walnut
overall:board; 52-3/8"h x 28"w x 1/2"d; overall: object 47-3/4"h x 24w x 1"d
Gift of Anonymous Donor
97.065.61

Masonic Third Degree Tracing or Mort Board; painted in oils on two hinged walnut panels; on lower board, in the foreground, on a moasic pavement, is a skull and crossbones, a coffin inscribed "3000", a trowel, compasses, skerrett [reel and line], pencil, level and plumb; above, in a dark background, is the dim feature of a lit lamp on a pedestal; above, continuing on the upper board, a representation of a point within a circle bounded by parallel lines, and a five-pointed star; the dark background gradually merges into a radiant light at the top where there is represented the All-seeing Eye of Providence; whole composition is contained within a double red and black border.

English artist John Harris, who may have painted this tracing board and the one displayed nearby, created many similar teaching images for lodges in England. This tracing board displays symbols associated with the Master Mason degree of Freemasonry. It and the one on view to the right are both hinged in the middle. This feature may have helped lodge members move and store the board more easily and kept the images on the tracing boards hidden from people who were not Freemasons.