Snapshots of the Past

A Mason holding his own – Antique Print

A Mason holding his own, c1908 May 18. — historic photograph
A Mason holding his own, c1908 May 18.. Historic photograph from the Freemasons collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Step back in time with A Mason holding his own, a historic photograph rich in period detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. It brings character to any room and makes a memorable gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

A Mason holding his own

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A Mason holding his own" takes its humor from a phrase that plays on both a fraternal ritual and a man standing his ground, which suggests a joke aimed at the Freemasons' reputation for secrecy and self-importance. The caption card's tracings also file it under courtship and humor, so it may have been meant as a comic scene about marriage or romance. Photographers in Boston and elsewhere produced many such novelty studio pictures around 1908, when comic cards and printed jokes were popular. The record is based on an old caption card, so its date and interpretation should be read with that in mind.

Created / publishedc1908 May 18.
Medium1 photographic print.
NotesPhoto copyrighted by the Celebrity Art Co., Boston. No copyright renewal. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Courtship...; Humor; Photog. Index; Freemasons; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,249 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-134515

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