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Members of Altemont Lodge, Peterborough, New Hampshire
1861
George H. Scripture (1839-1929)
USA: New Hampshire, Peterborough
Metal, wood, glass, tintype, ambrotype, Plexiglas
frame: 21-3/4"h x 38-1/4"w x 1-3/4"d
Museum Purchase
2001.063

Framed set of sixty-four photographic portraits (tintypes, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes) of men (Masonic lodge members). The photographs are individually framed within a larger frame and show bust-length portraits. The center tintype shows an altar, open bible, and square and compasses. There is one portrait missing near the lower proper right corner. On the reverse of fifty-seven of the photographs, the initial and/or name of the man and his age is noted in black ink. The frame is wooden and on its reverse is a rectangular piece of Plexiglas mounted with screws over the backs of the photographs.


In 1861, members of Altemont Lodge No. 26, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, agreed to use lodge funds to pay for a “Miniature Frame” to be made and hung in their lodge room. This frame would include portraits of “every Master Mason in regular standing in town”—be they a member of Altemont Lodge or not. Masons in the area were “...invited to deposit their ambrotypes with those of the Brothers of the Lodge.” Some of the men pictured here had their portraits taken by George H. Scripture, a Peterborough photographer and area Mason. For further information, see blog post, July 14, 2015, http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2015/07/masonic-tintypes.html



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