Nathan Negus, who is thought to have decorated this box with Masonic symbols, served as an apprentice to Boston ornamental painter John Ritto Penniman (1782-1841). A member of St. John’s Lodge in Boston, Penniman painted aprons and other Masonic objects—with his apprentices’ help. As a young man, Negus, possibly following Penniman’s example, joined the fraternity. Writing home he noted of his membership, “I am a member of a society who will never see me Suffer….”
For more on this object please visit the online collection record
here.