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Portrait of Major Joseph Beck, date unknown

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Portrait of Major Joseph Beck, date unknown

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Photographer: Reuben R. Sallows (1855 - 1937)..Description: .Portrait of middle-aged man, three-quarter length, standing, facing front; wears black jacket and pants, white formal shirt; chain, cuffs and apron of office for Masonic Lodge; dark hair, handlebar moustache; left hand holds gavel resting atop covered table; archway leading to narrow window in background on right; Sallows imprint in lower left corner of matte; writing across bottom identifies subject: Major Joseph Beck..Object ID : 0518-rrs-ogohc-ph..View additional photographs by Sallows that are held in other collections at the Reuben R. Sallows Digital Library. ( http://www.sallowsgallery.ca/ ) ..Order a higher-quality version of this item by contacting the Huron County Museum (fee applies). ( https://www.flickr.com/people/huroncountymuseum/ )

Freemasonry's impact on America is more significant than anything that speculation would hold. A movement that emerged from the Reformation, Freemasonry was the widespread and well-connected organization. It may seem strange for liberal principles to coexist with a secretive society but masonry embraced religious toleration and liberty principles, helping to spread them through the American colonies. In a young America, Masonic ideals flourished. In Boston in 1775, Freemasonic officials who were part of a British garrison granted local freemen of color the right to affiliate as Masons. The African Lodge No. 1. was named after the order's founder, Prince Hall, a freed slave. It represented the first black-led abolitionist movement in American history. One of the greatest symbols of Freemasonry, the eye-and-pyramid of the Great Seal of the United States, is still on the back of the dollar bill. The Great Seal's design was created under the direction of Benjamin Franklin (another Freemason), Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. Freemasonry principles strengthened America's founding commitment to the individual's pursuit of meaning. Beyond fascination with symbolism and secrecy, this ideal represents Freemasonry's highest contribution to U.S. life. Freemasons rejected a European past in which one overarching authority regulated the exchange of ideas. Washington, a freemason, in a letter to the congregation of a Rhode Island synagogue wrote: "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens..." Freemasonry's most radical idea was the coexistence of different faiths within a single nation.

Studio portrait photographs from a collection of 240 photographs by Huron County photographer, R. R. Sallows housed at the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol. These images were digitized in 2004 as part of the Reuben R. Sallows Digital Library, which contains over 1000 images from various institutions.

date_range

Date

1880 - 1900
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Source

Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol
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Copyright info

This image is in the public domain in Canada. Credit to the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol.

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