Three drawings from Jeremy Ladd Cross’s True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor depict (from left to right) the Weeping Virgin; Palmyra, or Tadmor from the Royal Arch Degree, and the four cardinal virtues: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice, standing in front of the Point-within-a-Circle.

Heather K. Calloway
Dir. of Internships & Coord. of Library/Museum Services, Supreme Council, 33°

Jeremy Ladd Cross’s True Masonic Chart is the source of most Masonic symbols
used in American Freemasonry.

The Pot of Incense. The Bee Hive. The All-Seeing Eye. The Setting Maul, Spade, Coffin, and Sprig of Evergreen. All of these symbols, and many more, can be found in almost any Masonic “monitor,” a guidebook to the non-secret parts of Masonic ceremonies. That the images are significant is certain, but have you ever wondered how they got into the book? Most American Grand Lodges publish monitors to aid memory work, but how did these little volumes originate?

The short answer is that monitors, in their present illustrated form, were inspired by the work of Jeremy Ladd Cross (1783–1861), who published The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor in 1819. His monitor was the first to introduce pictorial aids giving the initiate visual hints to help recall the lectures. Prior to this, his instructor taught him the work, and he memorized the ritual in the traditional manner of “mouth to ear.”

Masonic monitors were a relatively new concept when Cross published his book. He had been a student and protégé of Thomas Smith Webb (1771–1819), the Masonic lecturer who published America’s first Masonic guide book, The Freemason’s Monitor; or Illustrations of Masonry in 1797. Webb’s Monitor not only gave these books the name we use today, but its language also helped standardize the development of Freemasonry throughout the United States. Despite the title, the word “illustrations” did not mean pictures or symbols, but rather a clarification of the ritual.

Webb’s work was influenced by the English Masonic ritualist William Preston (1742–1818), who published a successful lecture system under the name Illustrations of Masonry (first edition, 1772). There were nine editions of Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry published during his lifetime, between 1772 and 1812. The book continued to be published for more than 50 years after his death. (All nine editions are available from the Supreme Council’s store on a CD-ROM). His work was also a commentary on the purposes of Freemasonry. Preston concluded that the true purpose of the Fraternity was the education of its members.

Webb realized the utility of Preston’s work, which he adapted to the American ritual. He became renowned as a lecturer and began teaching others who hoped to disseminate his work. Jeremy Cross became his most well-known and successful student. Cross was born in New Hampshire in 1783 and was made a Mason in St. John’s Lodge in 1807 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1816 he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to learn the trade of hatter. While residing there, he became a student of Webb. After learning the ritual proficiently under Webb, he soon began traveling as a lecturer.

Jeremy Ladd Cross designed this Master Mason’s apron from the 1820s.

After Cross exemplified the degree work for the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, he was approved as an official instructor, and he continued to promulgate the ritual throughout his travels. By 1818 he partnered with Brother Amos Doolittle, a talented artist and engraver, in New Haven, Connecticut, to create printing plates for Masonic aprons. The two split the profits of their venture. In August 1818 Cross recorded a brief account in his diary stating that he “spent the day drafting emblems with Br Doolittle for the Masonic Chart which I intend publishing.” For several days the diary accounts mention that the men drafted emblems for the “Masonic Chart.”

This so-called “chart” that Cross and Doolittle were creating became The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor. Historians Ill. Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, and Kent Logan Walgren have noted that Cross borrowed that name “chart” from a pre-publication announcement for Henry Parmele’s monitor, Key to the First Chart of the Masonic Mirror (1819). Parmele came up with the idea of a Masonic Chart before Cross, but the True Masonic Chart was published prior to the Key to the First Chart. Walgren notes that Parmele attributed “the delay in publication to illness.”

It is uncertain if Webb ever saw Cross’s Masonic Chart, as he passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in July 1819. It is also unknown if Webb was aware of or would have approved of publishing images with ritual extracts. Previous to this time, the symbols only appeared painted on wall charts or on a “Master’s carpet” adorning the lodge. What is known, however, is that Cross effectively took his mentor’s memory work and added images which would aid in teaching and learning the lectures. The Masonic Chart became an immediate success and all but replaced Webb’s Illustrations of Masonry. Together, Webb and Cross can be credited for helping standardize ritual work across America. (Only Pennsylvania does not work some version of “Webb-Cross” ritual.) In an advertisement added to the 1851 edition of The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor, a Bro. Benjamin Franklin (not the famous one) wrote, “It was the arrangement and classification of these emblems and their adaptation to the work in several degrees in such form as to secure uniformity which constituted the chief value and excellency of Cross’s publication.”

Success breeds imitation! The success of Cross’s Masonic Chart encouraged the publication of innumerable monitors, which adopted and re-engraved the emblems, though leaving them virtually unchanged. For example, in almost every modern monitor Father Time is depicted with a particular tuft of hair flowing forward from his forehead. This feature can be traced back to the original Doolittle engraving.

Masonic scholars are uncertain whether Cross invented the “marble monument” which included Father Time as part of the symbolism of the Third Degree. The image consists of a weeping virgin, holding a sprig of acacia in one hand and an urn in the other, before her is a broken column on which rests the Book of Constitutions, while Father Time is behind her unbraiding and counting the ringlets of her hair. The emblem was first introduced in the Masonic Chart and was widely copied. Lithographs with the emblems from the Chart became popular in 1865, (even Currier and Ives printed one in 1876). All are nearly identical, with varying embellishments to the engravings, and all include Cross’ image of the monument. You can even purchase a present day version reminiscent of the original Masonic Charts entitled “The Light of Masonry,” from Masonic supply companies.

A Link in the Fraternal Chain

Left: Cross’s version of the beehive from the Masonic Chart; Right: The beehive as depicted on an American, silk, hand-drawn Master Mason’s apron from the 1850s

The influence of Cross’s images appear on everything from aprons, to firing glasses, to ceramics, to Masonic jewelry boxes. Some aprons display painted, engraved or embroidered images virtually indistinguishable from those in the Masonic Chart, for example “the Three Steps” (emblematic of the three principal stages of human life: youth, manhood, and age), or the hourglass and scythe (reminding us of the fleeting nature of life). See the apron above for these and other emblems.

After the publication of the first edition of the Masonic Chart, Cross bought out Doolittle’s interest and Doolittle continued a successful business as a Masonic engraver, jeweler, and regalia supplier until his death in 1832. Cross went on to publish The Templars’ Chart in 1820, which was a smaller success. Following his involvement with a “Cerneau” branch of the Scottish Rite, he created a Supplement of the Templar’s Chart (1852) to include the Scottish Rite degrees. He returned to the place of his birth and died in 1861.

Chances are that the same emblems are in the monitor you use today—go ahead and take a look (hint: look in your suit coat pocket or sock drawer). Got it? Okay, now open it and look at the images. Do you see how similar they are to those originally designed for the Masonic Chart? Pretty neat, huh? Of course what you are actually seeing is more than the reproduction of images. Each time a monitor reproduces them, it forms another link in the fraternal chain reaching back to Brothers Cross and Doolittle.

Heather K. Calloway a native of Albuquerque, is Coordinator of Library and Museum Services and Director of Internships at the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J. She received her B.A. in Religious Studies and Political Science in 1997 from the University of New Mexico, a Master of Theological Studies in 2001 from The Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado, and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland in 2005. She has been a guest lecturer at various Masonic bodies, including the Allied Masonic Degrees and the New Mexico Lodge of Research.