Introduction
Historians estimate that there were about 5,000 Freemasons in the colonies by the 1770s. From this modest start, Freemasonry grew rapidly in the late 1700s and 1800s. For example, while he was Grand Master of Massachusetts, Paul Revere (1734-1818) chartered twenty-three new lodges over his term from 1795 to 1797, almost doubling the number in the state. New lodges needed tracing boards, furniture and ritual objects to undertake their work and, “Fit up their hall in Masonic style.” Established lodges sought to keep their lodges attractive and up-to-date. These combined needs drove commissions of the kinds of objects displayed here.