Made in Cincinnati: Highlights from "Mystery & Benevolence"

Visitors to the Taft’s exhibition Mystery &  Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art will discover fraternal regalia and teaching aids produced in the Queen City in the late 1800s. John Sherer—a publisher and Freemason—created the earliest Cincinnati-made piece in the show, a colorful print packed with imagery (fig. 1). Sherer was best known for his production of large educational charts, or “carpets,” which were often rolled out onto the floor for optimal instruction. Used to teach Master Masons, this design depicts Father Time in the center, standing behind a weeping woman. The broken column before them symbolizes a life cut short. The image reminds Masons that time, patience, and perseverance accomplish all things.

Father Time appears again in a chromolithograph that features America’s first president (fig. 2). In 1753, the young George Washington became a Mason in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Here, he holds a gavel that rests upon an unfurled piece of paper. It reads, “The Grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the Human Race.” Strobridge, a successful printing business founded in Cincinnati in 1847, undoubtedly produced this work to appeal to current and aspiring fraternity members who revered Washington both as a historic figure and a Mason. 

Last, Pettibone Brothers of Cincinnati likely made this vivid blue Odd Fellows banner (fig. 3). James and William Pettibone’s operation was described as a “large establishment in which all kinds of paraphernalia for lodges, societies, schools, etc. are manufactured.” The emblems featured on this banner include the heart in hand, axe, serpent wrapped around a cross, globe, and the Ark of the Covenant. The blue ground symbolizes the heavens, divine eternity, and human immortality. As one Odd Fellows manual explained, “It is the proper symbol of Brotherly Love, indicating that it should be as far-reaching and constant as the ends of the earth.” The above works of art are not only reminders of the once booming market for fraternal goods in the Queen City, they also provide visual evidence of the spiritual, intellectual, and moral character associated with Freemasons and Odd Fellows.

Taft Family Connection

In the center of this photograph, you will see a blurry image of Taft Museum of Art co-founder Charles Phelps Taft (fig. 4). Shovel in hand, he breaks ground on the site of Cincinnati’s new Masonic Center. Taft was a high-ranking Mason and a generous supporter of the building project. A fellow fraternity member wrote of him, “Seldom, if ever, has a citizen of Cincinnati contributed so substantially and so splendidly to the well-being of his community in such varied and worthwhile ways as has our beloved Illustrious Brother Taft.” 1

Charles was not the first Taft family member to belong to a fraternal organization. Like his father Alphonso and his half-brother William Howard (fig. 5), Charles was a member of Kilwinning Lodge No. 356. Alphonso even co-founded the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University in 1832.

1. “Obituary Records,” Proceedings of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the Thirty-third and Last Degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America (Boston, 1930), 331.

The author gratefully acknowledges the American Folk Art Museum for the content that informed portions of this article.