History of Tracing Boards and Floor Cloths

[Tamrin]

History of Tracing Boards and Floor Cloths

<www.phoenixmasonry.org>

A framework of board or canvas, on which the emblems of any particular Degree are inscribed, for the assistance of the Master in giving a lecture. It is so called because formerly it was the custom to inscribe these designs on the floor of the Lodge-room in chalk, which were wiped out when the Lodge was closed. It is the same as the Carpet, or Tracing-Board. The washing out of the designs chalked upon the floor is seen in the early caricatures of the Craft where a mop and pail are illustrated. These would soon be put aside when Lodges met in carpeted rooms. Then the symbols were shown by marking out the Lodge with tape and nails or shaping the symbols in wood or metal to be laid upon the floor or table or pedestal as the case might be in the Lodge. Such use of separate symbols we have seen in English Lodges, as at Bristol, where the ancient ceremonies are jealously and successfully preserved. An easy development would be to picture the designs on a cloth to be spread out on the floor when in use or folded up for storage. Then there would be the further movement to the stereopticon slides of a similar character, and which find frequent use in the United States. Brother John Harris in 1820 designed and made a set of Tracing Boards for the Three Degrees. These designs were never authorized by the Grand Lodge of England, the individual Lodges employed their own artists and the results varied accordingly, though the influence of Brother Harris tended to the uniformity that practically now prevails among Tracing-Board makers. Articles of much interest and value on the subject are "Evolution and Development of the Tracing or Lodge Board," by Brother E. H. Dring (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1916, volume xxix, pages 243 and 275), and "Some Notes on Tracing Board of the Lodge of Union, No. 38" by Brother O.N. Wyatt (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1910, volume xxiii, page 191). The latter article refers particularly to the work of Brother Josiah Bowring, a portrait painter of London, who painted the boards for the Chichester Lodge in 1811, himself being initiated in 1795.

[keith]

Excellent images of the Harris tracing boards are available at

www.zetlandhall.com/tboard.php

Also, if you do a Google search for 'tracing boards, a plethora of appropriate sites come up. Take your pick!

The Masonic Tracing Board was evolved out of the Square Pavement. The latter represented in miniature scale, the floor of the Master Builder's workroom.

In Persia it became the custom to draw these Tracing Boards on the floor of the workroom where it would be convenient for all the workmen to see them. The squares were laid out on the floor of the workroom and the plan of the building to be erected is marked out, and each square represents either one or four bricks.

In the days of early Speculative Masonry in England a considerable portion of the Ceremony was connected with a drawing on the floor of the Lodge Room. In those days Lodges usually met in some well-known inn or tavern. The furnishings would be very plain, and the floor would consist of boards sprinkled with sand or rushes. When a Degree was being worked, a space in front of the Master's pedestal was swept clean. On this clear space it was the Tyler's duty to draw with chalk and charcoal a design in the form of an oblong square, representing a building, with various Masonic Symbols and Emblems such as the Square, Level and Plumb Rule, and possibly other designs representing King Solomon's Temple and the Tomb of Hiram. After the Symbols and Emblems had been explained to the Candidate, he was given a mop and a pail of water and ordered to wash out the drawing on the floor.

It was the Tyler's duty to make this drawing with chalk and charcoal, for which he was paid a special fee, often 2/6d (25 cents). The drawing was an important part of the Ceremony and a Lodge would not be held to initiate a Candidate without it.

One Ritual says:

"Some Lodges use tape and nails to form the same thing and so keep the world ignorant of the matter"

This method was used first on account of the introduction of carpets. It was thus impossible to draw on the floor with chalk and charcoal. Also Tylers who were able to draw these designs with the necessary accuracy and some regard to fidelity of type were not always easy to obtain.

Later the custom was gradually introduced of using templates, that is, pieces of metal cut to the desired shapes and placed on the squared design.

Later still floorcloths were introduced. The drawing was made up on a large piece of cloth which could be placed on the floor and rolled up and put away when not in use. For the sake of convenience these cloths were placed on boards and held up by two trestles and known as Trestle Boards. Gradually the custom seems to have arisen of drawing emblems on the Board itself, and as the drawing on the floor was known as "The Lodge" the Board was generally known as "The Lodge Board" though still sometimes called "The Lodge", For example, in the Book of Constitution of the year 1784 there is an account of the dedication of the Freemasons Hall, London, in which it states "About half past twelve the processions entered the Hall in the following order: Grand Tyler with drawn sword four Tylers carrying the Lodge covered in white satin".

No dates can be given for the various changes. There seems to have been no uniformity. Some Lodges appear to have had boards before they had cloths, and some to have had both at once, and some to have gone straight from the drawing on the floor to the Lodge Board. Although undoubtedly there were Lodge Boards in existence before 1800, they did not come into general use until about that time.

The Tracing Board will thus be seen to have passed through 5 stages.
1. The drawing on the floor.
2. Tape and nails.
3. Tinplates or templates cut in the shape of the Emblems.
4. Painted Floorcloths.
5. Finally the Tracing Board separated from the Pavement altogether. the latter norw remaining on the form of the Square or Chequered Pavement as we have it today.

In the 1st Tracing Board Lecture there are two inconsistent statements regarding the Tracing Board:
1. The Tracing Board is for the Master to "lay lines and draw designs upon".
2. The Tracing Board is "for the Brethren to moralise on".

The first implies a plain and clear drawing board, the second something more.

The explanation is that two separate boards are referred to. The first, the real Tracing Board, is a plain drawing board depicted on the First Degree Board in front of the Pedestal, and the second, the Lodge Board, is what is usually known to us as the Tracing Board with the various Symbols and Emblems painted on it.

(Transactions, Masters' and Past Masters' Lodge 130, Christchurch, New Zealand)

[Tamrin]

The Kirkwall Scroll
by Brian Smith

(Excerpt)

George William Speth (1847-1901) was an erudite Freemason, a founder and secretary of the famous Quatuor Coronati Lodge and editor of its important journal, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. In 1897 he commissioned an article about Kirkwall’s lodge from another masonic enthusiast, Archdeacon Craven of Orkney. The article duly appeared in volume 10 of AQC, with a contribution by Speth himself about the scroll. Far from concluding that it was the work of someone who had been to the Middle East, or who was a Templar, Speth speculated that it was a lodge floorcloth from ‘the first half of the eighteenth century, or very little later’.

[Tamrin]

Some thoughts on the history of The Tracing Boards

Presented at the Vancouver Grand Masonic Day, October 16, 1999
by Bro. Mark S. Dwor, Centennial-King George Lodge No. 171, Richmond

Four Parts & Illustrations, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon

(Excerpt)

1. Much of what needs to be known about Tracing Boards is known. The people who made them and the Lodges that use them are all fairly well documented. This part of Masonic history does not fall into "from time immemorial."

2. The time frame when the Tracing Boards came into being is roughly at the very end of the Eighteenth Century and the first decades or so of the Nineteenth Century. The contents of them reflects the reality of Masonry at the time, just prior to and through the process of and after the Lodge of Reconciliation.

3. While we think of the rise of the two rival Grand Lodges in the Eighteenth Century as a time of conflict, in actual fact it was a time of the greatest Masonic growth where the Brethren in the Lodges were experimenting with different methods of communicating the Masonic message to each other and perfecting new rituals.

4. The Tracing Boards are teaching aids. They have taken on a life of their own, which has had some startling repercussions in Ritual work.

5. To understand where Tracing Boards came from, you have to understand where Floor Cloths came from, but that does not necessarily mean that Tracing Boards are an evolution from Floor Cloths. Many Lodges that use Tracing Boards still use Floor Cloths, and some Lodges that use Floor Cloths do not use Tracing Boards, &c. While I am discussing primarily the Tracing Boards that are used in our jurisdiction in the Canadian, Emulation, and Australian Lodges, I do not mean to overlook the Degree charts and Floor Cloths used in the Antient Lodges.

6. The Tracing Boards that we use ought not to be called Tracing Boards, and this has been recognized by commentators for the last 80 years, but the chance of renaming them even 80 years ago was zero and is certainly less than that now.

7. The Tracing Boards were originally designed to lie flat on the floor of the Lodge, and the Tracing Boards that we use now have used the same artistic perspective as did the original Tracing Boards.

8. While the Tracing Boards as a teaching aid can also be an adornment of the Lodge, it is generally agreed by the writers on this topic that the ones that are most commonly in use, particularly in British Columbia, are the least artistically interesting.

9. There appears to be no rule in terms of Ritual that requires the Tracing Boards for the Degrees that are not being worked to be hidden–i.e., if you are in Third Degree, First Degree and Second Degree Boards must not be shown, or conversely, that the Third Degree Board must not be shown while you are in the First Degree.

[Tamrin]

Tracing Boards and Masonic Art

[Excerpt- Article by Angel Millar - Linked Above]

In the early 18th century, Freemasons brought the tools of stonemasonry, as well as other objects such as ladders and even beehives, to the Lodge, where they were arranged, and used to illustrate the ‘Mystery’ of Freemasonry. Due to the awkwardness of packing Lodges (which were usually private rooms in taverns, and hired especially for the occasion) with such cumbersome equipment, the more artistic Freemasons began to illustrate the symbols, first by drawing them on the floor in chalk and charcoal, and, later, by painting them on small squares of marble or larger canvases. The painted cloth – which could be more than six feet in length – was either hung on the wall or laid flat on the floor, and, in the latter case, became a fully functional part of the ritual. Thus, if stairs were painted on it, the initiate may have been required to walk this symbolic path, over the canvas, etc.



The tracing board, such as we can see today, had appeared by the latter half of the eighteenth century, and was typically painted on canvas and displayed on an easel, were a Master Mason delivering a standard lecture, as a part of the Degree, could point to the symbols illustrated as necessary. The tracing board is usually presented during first three “Craft” Masonic Degrees, especially in Britain, though this Masonic tool is also found in a few so-called higher Degrees.

[Tamrin]

Provenance unknown

Please compare the motto, Lux ex tenebris ("light from darkness"), with
that below of the Waldenses, Lux lucet in tenebris ("a light shining in the darkness")



Officially, the emblem is that of a candle on a Bible (the light)
the darkness is said to represent he persecution of the "true" Christians and
the seven stars are said to represent the seven Churches of Asia (Revelation 1:11)