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Man in Masonic Scottish Rite Costume with Thrice Potent Master's Jewel
1877-79
Notman and Campbell
USA: Massachusetts, Boston
Photograph on paper mounted on board
overall: 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 1/8 in.; 16.51 x 10.795 x .3175 cm
Gift of the Supreme Council, 33º, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
85.80.12c

Cabinet card photograph; unidentified man wearing Masonic Scottish Rite robes and Thrice Potent Master's jewel (likely); reads on front "Notman and Campbell / Boston"; printed on back "W. Notman / Photographer to Her Majesty / Montreal 1876 / Gold Medal Centennial / Notman and Campbell / 4 Park Street, Boston / Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Conn., Easton, Pennsylvania / Entered at Stationers Hall / Marion, Imp. Paris."


The unidentified sitter in this studio portrait by Boston photographers William Notman and Thomas Campbell--who joined forces as the firm Notman and Campbell from 1877 to 1879--is dressed as a king in sumptuous regalia and a crown, likely for a Scottish Rite degree ritual. Along with his lace-trimmed robes appliqued with stylized papyrus plants, he wears a jewel suspended from a cord. This jewel, in the shape of a compasses topped by a crown containing a sun, likely indicates that he was a Thrice Potent Master of a Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection. The compasses that form the jewel connect to an arc, echoing the shape of Past Master’s jewels in many jurisdictions.



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