Unsung Lodge Leaders

UNSUNG LODGE LEADERS: Photographs of Past Masters

by Hilary Anderson Stelling, Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

In the 1820 edition of his monitor, The True Masonic Chart, Jeremy Cross noted that when a Mason was installed as Master of his lodge, his brethren trusted, with “full confidence,” his “skill, and capacity to govern...” The installing officer reminded the new Master of the seriousness of his responsibility with the admonition, “The honour, reputation and usefulness of your lodge, will materially depend on the skill and assiduity with which you manage its concerns; while the happiness of its members will be…promoted in proportion to the zeal and ability with which you propagate the genuine principles of our institution.” For decades before and after Cross described the Master’s role, Freemasons have been rising to the challenge of serving as presiding officer of their lodge.

As part of the ceremony Cross portrayed, the new Master was “invested with the insignia of his office… and implements of his lodge.” In the 1800s and 1900s, as photography became increasingly accessible and affordable, many lodge Masters marked their assumption of this role with a photograph of themselves wearing and wielding some of the signs and symbols of their office. The photographs shown here, drawn from the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library, offer a glimpse of some of the men who stewarded their lodges through good times and bad. Their names have not always been preserved along with their portraits, but these photographs suggest the pride they felt in leading their brethren.

(A) Lodge Master, 1864-1866, William Edgar Prall, Knoxville, Tennessee. Gift of Jacques Noel Jacobsen, Jr, 2009.021.6.

Between 1864 and 1866, Knoxville photographer William Edgar Prall (1838-1906) captured this studio image (A) of an unidentified lodge Master and Civil War-era soldier. The subject’s elaborate velvet sash and apron show he is a Mason, and his jewel and the gavel on the table next to him speak to his role at his lodge. Around the time he took this picture, Prall advertised to “Soldiers and Citizens” that he was “prepared to accommodate them with Cartes De Visite…warranted to please all.” Cartes de visites were photographs mounted on cards about 4 inches high by 2 ½ inches wide and were a popular portrait format during the 1860s.

(B) Lodge Master, ca. 1868, Hewitt & Searles, Amsterdam, New York. Special Acquisitions Fund, 88.42.42.

Working together, the Amsterdam, New York, photographers Thaddeus S. Hewitt and George Searles made this portrait (B) of another unidentified lodge Master around 1867. The subject came to the studio dressed as if he were presiding over a meeting, wearing his jewel of office suspended from a velvet collar, a top hat, white gloves, and a richly decorated apron. The gavel and Bible at his side are further reminders of his authority and responsibility.

(C) Lodge Master, ca. 1870. Indiana. Museum Purchase, 99.004.2.

In the 1870s, carpenter Abraham Sebring Armstrong (1822-1879) served as Master of George Washington Lodge No. 325 in Bristol, Indiana. His leadership earned the respect of his brethren; they elected him to the position repeatedly—in 1871, 1874, and 1876. This portrait (C) , which shows him in an exuberantly decorated apron, holding a gavel, and wearing a Master’s jewel, commemorated his leadership. It also served to memorialize him—Armstrong died suddenly of “lung fever” (likely pneumonia) in 1879.

(D) Past Deputy Grand Master, ca. 1875. John F. Coonley, Memphis, Tennessee, Gift of Jacques Noel Jacobsen, Jr, 98.077.10.

Memphis photographer and artist John Frank Coonley (1830-1915) took this portrait (D )of an unidentified man in a dark suit wearing three badges—one is a Scottish Rite jewel and another is a jewel that shows he was a Past Deputy Grand Master. Coonley, who also went by Jacob, worked by himself in Memphis for just a short time between 1874 and 1876. Today, he is remembered for the images he took of Civil War battlefields and construction projects as well as scenes he captured of the Bahamas in the late 1800s.

(E) Officer in Regalia, 1877-1879. Notman and Campbell, Boston, Massachusetts. Gift of the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U. S. A., 85.80.20.

In a studio portrait (E) by Boston photographers William Notman and Thomas Campbell (who co-owned the firm Notman and Campbell from 1877 to 1879), an unidentified sitter is dressed as a king in sumptuous regalia and a crown. Along with his lace-trimmed robes appliqued with stylized papyrus plants, the subject of the portrait 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.

(F) Charles L. Hofmann, ca. 1905. Joseph Huebner, Rutherford, New Jersey. Gift of Jacques Noel Jacobsen, Jr, 91.030.3.

Charles L. Hofmann (b. 1846) came to the United States from Germany as a teenager. He later owned the Hofmann House, a restaurant in Rutherford, New Jersey. For this portrait (F) , commissioned in the early 1900s, Hofmann donned a suit, an understated apron, a top hat, and a jewel indicating his status as a District Deputy Grand Master. Raised at Boiling Spring Lodge No. 152 in 1883, Hofmann served as Master of his lodge in 1888.

Emil Cruz and Companion, ca. 1970. Detroit, Michigan. Gift of Patricia Fé Andrews, 2016.070.20.

Emil Cruz (1904–1983), born in the Philippines, immigrated to the United States in 1924. A member of Schiller Lodge No. 263 in Detroit, Michigan, Cruz worked as a jeweler. This photograph commemorates his installation as Master of his lodge. In the photograph (G) , he wears a top hat and holds a gavel—both symbols of his authority. His jewel is in the shape of a square, a Masonic symbol of honesty and fairness as well as the age-old emblem of a lodge Master.

If you would like to see more examples of the photographic portraits in the museum’s collection, visit our website, https://www.srmml.org/collections/online-collections/. If you have questions about a photograph in your or your lodge’s collection, please drop a line to hstelling@srmml.org.