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Masonic Entered Apprentice Tracing Board
1796
Maker not marked
USA: Massachusetts, Boston
Oil on canvas, brass, wood
overall: 54 x 35 1/2 x 1 in.; 137.16 x 90.17 x 2.54 cm
Gift of Union Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, Dorchester, Massachusetts
75.46.17

Masonic flooring or tracing board with symbols for the Entered Apprentice degree. Painted on canvas and mounted on a board with brass headed tacks. The tracing board shows two golden columns with an open book in between. The central columns are surrounded by sun, moon, stars, and masonic tools including a square, level, and trowel. At top center is an all-seeing eye. Along the outer edge is a sawtooth border.


In the 1700s lodge members used floor cloths painted with symbols to instruct new brothers in the meaning of Masonic emblems. When a floor cloth was not needed, members rolled it up for storage. Union Lodge of Dorchester, Massachusetts, owned this tracing board, mentioning it on property inventories made from 1796 through 1820. At some time, probably in the early 1800s, members decided to attach the tracing board to a wood panel. This change allowed the tracing board to be hung on the lodge room wall during meetings. This painted flooring or tracing board takes the form of an "oblong square" with an "indented" border composed of alternating black and white triangles. Within the border are Masonic Craft symbols, some highlighted in gold leaf, that are associated with the Entered Apprentice Degree. This painted floor cloth was identified as a "Flooring Compleat" in "An Inventory of Utencils & furniture belonging to the Union Lodge," first compiled on December 13, 1796. In 1818 it was listed on the lodge's annual inventory as the "Apprentices flooring." By 1820 it was listed as the "Eter.d apprentices flooring" and was joined by a "Master Do. (Masters [flooring] ditto) and a "Draf.g Board" (Drafting [trestle] Board). For more information, see John D. Hamilton, "Material Culture of the American Freemasons," Lexington, Mass.: Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library, Inc., 1994, page 42; and blog post, January 29, 2015 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2015/01/in-the-1700s-and-1800s-members-of-masonic-lodges-used-cloths-painted-with-symbols-to-instruct-new-brothers-in-the-meaning-of.html