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Proceedings 18 18th Annual Grand Masonic Day S a t u rday October 16, 1999 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 I first gave a variation of this particular talk in May, 1996. I have 6. The Tracing Boards that we use ought not to be called Tracing given it a number of times since. Every time I’ve given the talk the Boards, and this has been recognized by commentators for the last analysis, although not the facts or the substance, changes slightly. As I 80 years, but the chance of renaming them even 80 years ago was have now had time to once again reconsider this and am now obligated zero and is certainly less than that now. to present the talk in written form, I also feel somewhat obligated to 7. The Tracing Boards were originally designed to lie flat on the floor of explain not so much my research, as meandering as it might have been, the Lodge, and the Tracing Boards that we use now have used the but rather the various pieces of Masonic history that are linked to same artistic perspective as did the original Tracing Boards. Tracing Boards. The history of Tracing Boards actually is fairly easy to 8. While the Tracing Boards as a teaching aid can also be an adornment describe, but how it fits into the larger context of Masonry and why it is of the Lodge, it is generally agreed by the writers on this topic that that we are now required, in the Canadian work, to actually use Tracing the ones that are most commonly in use, particularly in British Boards is quite a complex story. I must assume that the majority of Columbia, are the least artistically interesting. readers of this paper will be in the same state of darkness that I was 9. There appears to be no rule in terms of Ritual that requires the when I approached this topic however, for those of you who already Tracing Boards for the Degrees that are not being worked to be knowmuch or most of what I am about to describe, I hope you do not hidden—i.e., if you are in Third Degree, First Degree and Second mind a refresher course, and to those to whom some or all of this is Degree Boards must not be shown, or conversely, that the Third new, I trust you will find it as intriguing as I have. Degree Board must not be shown while you are in the First Degree. When I refer to the Canadian Ritual that is used in this Province To understand specifically why these issues were of importance the reference is to the British Columbia Canadian Work as authorized by to me, you have to understand why I did the research in the first place. Grand Lodge on June 23, 1955 and amended to 1983. When I refer to Two years prior to giving the talk on Tracing Boards, I had given a talk at the Antient Ritual it will be to British Columbia Antient Work, approved my Lodge on art and imagery in Masonry. While I was doing research on by Grand Lodge June 2, 1962. When I refer to the transactions of the that, specifically reviewing the wonderful colour reproductions in Quator Coronati, I will use the abbreviation AQC. I’m going to present Freemasonry A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol by W. Kirk McNulty, some conclusions right now, so you can better understand where the two groups of questions arose in my mind. topic is going: The first question group was, why the Third Degree Board is 1. Much of what needs to be known about Tracing Boards is known. almost always on display, and why the First Degree Board, which to me The people who made them and the Lodges that use them are all is the most interesting, is only seen briefly during a typical meeting fairly well documented. This part of Masonic history does not fall when we are going into the First Degree. Because we are in British into “from time immemorial.” Columbia we are obliged to do our business in the Third Degree, but that 2. The time frame when the Tracing Boards came into being is roughly is really not much of an answer. at the very end of the Eighteenth Century and the first decades or so The real question is why that Board needs to be tucked away of the Nineteenth Century. The contents of them reflects the reality of when we were not in the First Degree. The obvious answer, of course, is Masonry at the time, just prior to and through the process of and that in a functional basis there is no place to display all three Boards at after the Lodge of Reconciliation. the same time. There does not appear to be any particular ritual 3. While we think of the rise of the two rival Grand Lodges in the requirement for the lack of display of one Tracing Board or another. The Eighteenth Century as a time of conflict, in actual fact it was a time of only requirement is for a Tracing Board of the particular degree to be the greatest Masonic growth where the Brethren in the Lodges were displayed specifically when the degree is being worked. experimenting with different methods of communicating the Masonic In the Canadian Ritual the Senior Deacon displays a Tracing message to each other and perfecting new rituals. Board and the working tools of each degree separately. First Degree, 4. The Tracing Boards are teaching aids. They have taken on a life of (pages 6 & 17); Second Degree (pages 15 & 16) and Third Degree (page their own, which has had some startling repercussions in Ritual 13). There is no requirement for the placing of the Tracing Board for the work. First Degree Tracing Board Lecture, rather the Candidate is taken to the 5. To understand where Tracing Boards came from, you have to Junior Warden Station and the Junior Warden delivers the lecture on the understand where Floor Cloths came from, but that does not Tracing Board (page 38). Similarly, in the Second Degree, the Candidate necessarily mean that Tracing Boards are an evolution from Floor is taken to the West, where the Senior Warden delivers the Tracing Cloths. Many Lodges that use Tracing Boards still use Floor Cloths, Board Lecture (page 70). In the Third Degree the Deacons conduct the and some Lodges that use Floor Cloths do not use Tracing Boards, Candidate to the Master Mason’s Tracing Board and the Worshipful &c. While I am discussing primarily the Tracing Boards that are used Master points out its features, which are limited to the ornaments of a in our jurisdiction in the Canadian, Emulation, and Australian Lodges, Master Mason’s Lodge i.e. the porch, the dormer and the square I do not mean to overlook the Degree charts and Floor Cloths used in pavement (page 100). the Antient Lodges. I will be touching on certain issues regarding ritual, but this talk is 1 Copyright © Mark S. Dwor October 16, 1999 not about Tracing Boards and the ritual; that is a somewhat separate accepted by everyone, this is not correct. We assume because so much topic which has been dealt with by VW Bro. Jim Bennie in a talk he of the American Declaration of Independence and so many other parts of delivered to the Vancouver Lodge of Education and Research about two early American history (the New Secular Order) are related to Masonic years ago. I did not include a copy of his paper because it did not ideals, that these ideas were current in England. This is not correct. I necessarily deal with some of the issues that I have raised, nor should I don’t wish to give a full-blown course on 19th Century English politics expect anyone else to deal with my singular concerns. but for those who are interested I’ll give one recent reference, Poisoning The second question group deals with something on the typical The Minds Of The Lower Orders by Don Herzog, Princeton University First Degree Tracing Board, that is on the “Jacob’s Ladder,” the images Press, 1998. Also, it took three separate Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and for the three cardinal virtues—that is, Faith, Hope and Charity—typically 1884 to allow every man in England to have the vote. had a cross for faith. As I looked into the pictures of the early Tracing Up until 1854, unless you were an Anglican, it was almost Boards, I realized that none of them had a cross for the Faith; in fact, the impossible to attend either Cambridge or Oxford and it wasn’t until 1871 cross did not appear in the Tracing Boards until the 1860s. that legislation was passed making all offices, and professorships at The question then raised was why, if Freemasonry is inclusive not Cambridge, Oxford, and Durham (except for certain clerical and exclusive—that is, if it is designed to include all religions and not theological positions) open to anyone who was not an Anglican. We exclude any religion—why the symbol of Faith was a cross? forget that religious tensions in England and the social tensions and the I must admit I pondered this for a long time because I knew that if class tensions were not as we would perceive it now being as between I had gone to my Brethren and raised this issue the matter would have Christians and Jews and Muslims, but rather between Anglicans, Non- been resolved very quickly, as it was in fact when I did raise the issue, Conformists, Methodists, and everyone else including Catholics, Eastern by simply pasting a large F over the cross.
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