Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Masonic 1st Degree Tracing Board
1823-1845
John Harris (attributed)
England
Oil on walnut
mount: 52-3/8"h x 28"w x 1-1/2"d; overall: 47-3/4"h x 24" w x 1"d
Gift of Anonymous Donor
97.065.60

Masonic First Degree Tracing Board Painting; double-tracing board, painted in oils on two hinged paneled walnut boards; consists of a three-dimensional arrangement of the pillars Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty on a mosaic pavement, with the appropriate "Moveable Jewels" [square, level, plumb] leaning against their plinths; columns surmounted by heavy entablatures; in foreground is a block of smooth ashlar embedded with a Lewis ring, a trestle board, square, and compasses; an altar, slightly off-center, supports the Three great Lights, and bears on its front face the Circle and Point within bordered by the two Grand Parallel Lines; Jacob's Ladder, drawn as a staircase, ascends from the altar through a background of clouds to a Glory (seven-pointed star) in the center; "Three Virtues" on the ladder are represented by symbols: a chalice (Cup of Charity), a hand pointing to the chalice (the Liberal Hand), and an anchor (Anchor of Hope); entire composition contained within a tessellated border, the sides identified by "E. W. N. S."

Freemasons employ tracing boards—large paintings of Masonic symbols—to educate initiates about these symbols and to teach moral and philosophical lessons. This painting and the one displayed nearby present symbols associated with specific Masonic degrees. This one features symbols used in the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft degrees.