New Exhibition: “Paul Revere’s Ride Revisited: Drawings by Fred Lynch"

Royal Pizza & Subs, Somerville, 2012. Fred Lynch. Ink on paper. Loaned by the artist.

“Paul Revere’s Ride Revisited: Drawings by Fred Lynch," a new exhibition now on view at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, provides a fresh perspective on Paul Revere’s famous ride. This exhibition features 19 drawings by artist Fred Lynch, accompanied by his written impressions. Fred Lynch’s drawings of landmarks—both celebrated and lesser known—show how much has changed since Revere’s time, even as echoes of his era remain. The exhibition is currently on view through March 7, 2020.

Americans recognize Revere’s now-famous warnings: “The British are coming” or “The Regulars are out.” The story of Revere’s ride is over 200 years old, and its place in the early days of the American Revolution is well understood. For many, however, the details of Revere’s ride are left to their imagination. Fred Lynch’s drawings fill some of the gaps. His visual and written impressions provide viewers with an opportunity to consider how the scenes and buildings along Revere’s path have changed. Fred Lynch resides in the Boston area and is an artist, illustrator, and professor of Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.

“Paul Revere’s Ride Revisited” illustrates this evolution within a modernizing metropolis. In one of the more harrowing experiences of his journey, Revere was forced to divert course to narrowly avoid capture by British officers. Today, the location sits across from a pizza shop, represented in Lynch’s drawing “Royal Pizza & Subs” in Somerville, MA. The site of a perilous moment in Revere’s story is now shown as a peaceful suburb, far removed from the urgency of Revere’s ride. 

While time has changed much along Revere’s route, some landmarks have been preserved. The drawing, “Munroe Tavern,” shows a well-maintained building in snowy Lexington, MA. The building has long been seen as an important landmark and a reminder of the events that took place on April 19, 1775. The tavern currently operates as a museum, on the day of the battles in Lexington and Concord it served as a makeshift field hospital and, in 1789, hosted George Washington when he came to pay visit to the battlefield.

The starting point of Revere’s ride was, of course, his own home. In his drawing, “The Paul Revere House,” Lynch captures the oldest house in downtown Boston—constructed in 1680—behind a modern car, representing the past and present. The building changed hands for years until 1902, when Paul Revere’s great-grandson purchased it. The house was restored with the purpose of turning it into a museum, as it is today.

The Paul Revere House, Boston, 2017. Fred Lynch. Ink on paper. Loaned by the artist.

“Paul Revere’s Ride Revisited” traverses Paul Revere’s famous route, underscoring some of what has been preserved, as well as a lot that would be unrecognizable to colonists. Lynch explores this dynamic in a visual essay that talks about Revere’s journey from Boston to Lincoln in a new way.

A DeMolay Certificate Signed by Two Presidents

On October 14, 1922, a special ceremony took place in Washington, D.C. at the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction’s headquarters building, known as the House of the Temple. Although Scottish Rite members attended, the gathering was, in fact, a DeMolay event. A uniformed degree team of twenty-eight boys from Kansas City Chapter—the original DeMolay chapter—had traveled from Missouri in order to institute Robert LeBruce Chapter of DeMolay, Washington D.C.’s second DeMolay chapter. The Kansas City contingent also included a number of adults, among them DeMolay’s founder Frank S. Land (1890-1959). Those present in the room included 107 boys chosen to receive the degrees, as well as the boys’ fathers. Members of the Southern Jurisdiction’s Supreme Council, who were already in town for their own meeting, also attended.

Among those receiving the two DeMolay degrees that evening was nineteen-year-old Robert Emmet Doyle, Jr. (1903-1988). His DeMolay certificate is pictured here. In anticipation of the institution of the chapter, members had unanimously elected Doyle as the first Master Councilor of the Robert LeBruce Chapter. The founding of the Robert LeBruce Chapter in 1921 was part of a larger trend. DeMolay experienced tremendous growth in its first few years. Although originally located only in Missouri, where it began, by 1922, after only three years in existence, DeMolay boasted chapters in nearly every U.S. state.

Doyle followed the tradition of many Masons, by having his certificate autographed by nearly thirty Masons hailing from California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Texas, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. Among these signatures, those of two U.S. presidents, Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) and William H. Taft (1857-1930), stand out. Harding autographed and dated the certificate on April 24, 1922, while he was president. Because he was a Scottish Rite Mason, he added a “32°” after his name. Taft did not date his signature, but did include the name of his lodge, Kilwinning Lodge No. 356. All of the dated autographs are from 1922 and 1923, so it seems likely that Taft’s is also from around this time. In the early 1920s, the former president served as Chief Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Based in Washington, D.C., Doyle also collected signatures from various Scottish Rite Masons from the Southern Jurisdiction, including the long-serving Sovereign Grand Commander, John Cowles (1863-1954).

Just a few years after joining DeMolay, Doyle was raised a Master Mason in his father’s lodge, Lafayette Lodge No. 19. Doyle became a Scottish Rite Mason in the Southern Jurisdiction as part of a fifty-five member class upon which the 14th degree was conferred on October 28, 1924, at the Washington D.C.-based Mithras Lodge of Perfection No. 1. By the 1940s, Doyle had moved from Washington D.C. to California, where he lived until his death in 1988. His certificate, now in our collection, helps illustrate the deep connection between DeMolay and Scottish Rite Freemasonry.

Caption:
DeMolay certificate issued to Robert Emmet Doyle, Jr., 1922. Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Lexington, Massachusetts, Museum Purchase, A2017/024/001.

New to the Collection: Watercolor Mark Degree Record Made for Joseph Fish

Watercolor Mark Degree Record Made for Joseph Fish, 1818. William Murray (1756-1828), probably Montgomery County, New York. Museum Purchase, 2018.019.  Photograph by David Bohl.

In 1818 painter William Murray (1756-1828) created this watercolor for Joseph Fish, Sr., likely as a commemoration of Fish receiving the Mark Degree. A veteran of the Revolutionary War and a schoolteacher, Murray also painted colorful and charming family records and other works for friends and family in New York State. When he painted this work, Murray lived in Montgomery County, New York.  In the 1980s, collectors and researchers Arthur and Sybil Kern identified fourteen paintings signed by Murray over the course of his career. The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library recently purchased this one, formerly part of the Kern collection. It joins a family record signed by Murray that has been in the Museum’s collection for many years.

The Mark Degree commemoration that Murray painted for Joseph Fish shares decorative and stylistic elements with other works done by the artist.  Among these elements are borders of simple round flowers and of heart-shaped tulip-like flowers, different colored wavy lines, a field divided by lines and circular elements. In creating this work for Joseph Fish, Murray employed a palette of light brown, blue, red and yellow. He also, as befit the purpose of the work, included many Masonic symbols. At the top center of the drawing, Murray added an all-seeing eye. In the upper portion of the composition, at each corner, he drew a ladder, an ark, an urn and an anchor—all symbols used in Freemasonry.  Within the circle at the center, Murray included several Masonic symbols, such as an arch with a keystone, a letter G, stars, a plumb, a mallet, the moon and a coffin with a scythe on top of it. Beneath the large circle at the center, between “Joseph” and “Fish,” Murray drew a circle that surrouned Fish’s own mark—a symbol that Fish selected to represent himself—within a border of the letters HTWSSTKS. This group of letters are a mnemonic associated with the Mark Degree.  As his emblem, Fish chose a level. In Freemasonry this symbol represents equality and the lodge office of Senior Warden. Two other symbols in the watercolor related to lodge offices.  Crossed keys indicate the lodge treasurer.  A square and compasses with the sun at the center is an emblem found on many jewels given to lodge members who have served the lodge as Master.

In spite of these clues, little is known of Joseph Fish. The Kerns identified him as “a member of a Masonic lodge in Hoosick, NY.”  The owner of this painting may have been the Joseph Fish noted, in 1795, as the Junior Deacon of Patriot Lodge No. 39 of Pittstown, New York, a town neighboring Hoosick.  Masons established this lodge in 1794.  Short-lived, the lodge closed by 1818. Though its establishment is not noted in the Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of New York, a mark lodge associated with Patriot Lodge No. 39--Patriot Mark Lodge--had two members representing it at a meeting of the Grand Chapter in 1806. Both Federal Mark Lodge No. 37 in Hoosick and Patriot Mark Lodge in Pittstown were recorded as delinquent for at least two years’ worth of dues in 1815, suggesting that neither lodge thrived.  However, they may have been working long enough for Joseph Fish to have received the Mark Degree at one of them before 1818. Hopefully, further research will uncover more about Joseph Fish and about his connection to the artist William Murray. In the meantime, Murray's painting offers colorful evidence of Fish's participation in Freemasonry.

 

References:

George Baker Anderson, Landmarks of Rensselaer County, New York, (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Company, 1897) 194.

Arthur B. and Sybil B. Kern, “Painters of Record:  William Murray and His School,” The Clarion: America’s Folk Art Magazine (New York, NY: The Museum of American Folk Art, Winter, 1987) 28-35.

Arthur B. and Sybil B. Kern, “William Murray: Early New York State Painter,” and “New York State Painters of Family Records: The School of William Murray,” typescripts, 1985. Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Lexington, MA.

Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the State of New York, Vol. 1, 1798-1858, (Buffalo, NY: the Grand Chapter, 1871) 54, 63, 124.

A. J. Weise, History of the Seventeen Towns of Rensselaer County, (Troy, NY: J. M. Francis & Tucker, 1880), 87.