Tracing boards and cloths are used in masonic lodges as visual aids to explain the dramas that members take part in when they join. The large board below was made for Silurian Lodge in Ludlow near the Welsh border with England. The board then passed to the Lodge of the Marches and stayed on the wall of their meeting hall until the building was sold. The Museum bought the board in 2021 and we moved it to the South Gallery where it is now on display.
The board contains images from the three Craft degrees (or ceremonies) of freemasonry. The square at the top is the badge of the Master of the Lodge. It is used by stonemasons to make sure the angles of the building stones are square. It also represents life lived ‘on the square’ in an honourable and upright fashion.
Under it are two stones, one rough and one a perfect cube. These are called ‘ashlars’ and represent the freemason’s journey from a rough and imperfect state to a perfectly polished and square cube. This is a journey that real stones go through when stonemasons use their tools. In freemasonry the tools are used symbolically and it is the freemason him (or her) self who is improved by them.
The two tools below are the Plumb Rule (right), used to make sure vertical faces of stones are correct, and the Level (left) which makes sure that the horizontals are correct. These are also the badges of the Junior and Senior Wardens of the Lodge, who assist the Master in running the Lodge. The Junior Warden takes charge of non-ceremonial sections of meetings and the Senior Warden takes over when the ceremonies are being performed.
The centre of the board has a gilded star with the letter ‘G’ in the middle standing for geometry. Find out more about what the 'G' stands for.
Underneath the star is an elaborate geometrical figure with an arm, dressed in the frilled shirt and sleeve of an eighteenth century man drawing it. The design is the 47th Proposition of Euclid, sometimes known as Pythagoras’ Theorem. It is the badge of a man who has led the lodge as Master.
The bottom of the board has the chequered pavement that is in every lodge room, representing good and bad fortune that we all encounter in life.
Tracing boards are in every lodge but the combination of symbolism on this board is unique. It’s an important survival and has been seen and used by many hundreds of new freemasons during its life.
