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Emblems for Royal Crown Lodge No. 22
Artist unknown (English, 19th century)
1810–15
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 63.5 × 80.7 cm (25 × 31 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of the Estate of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This sign likely hung in an English lodge of the Odd Fellows, an international fraternal organization founded to promote mutual aid, charity, and moral responsibility. The myriad symbols here include a heart in hand, denoting openness and sincerity, and an hourglass, suggesting life’s transience. At the bottom, a phrase in Latin extols the principles of friendship, love, and truth.
Chartered groups developed in the United States beginning in 1819. While the English orders had long admitted black members, several American lodges broke away in 1842 to enforce whites-only membership. All the while, the English continued issuing charters to African Americans, who built an influential network of inclusive Odd Fellows lodges.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
