As Above, So Below
Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930
“There’s an inspiring and wacky solemnity in these organizations—high values reinforced through pageantry and performance in an ecumenical social setting—which deep down must also have been a whole lot of fun. Now it’s as if that foundational Other America, that underpinning of the America we know, has gradually eroded, and here we remain, living in a world that is a mere shell, a movie set, of the world that made our world manifest, that brought it into being, and all we have left are these perplexing masks, banners, and costumes to puzzle over.”
—David Byrne, from the foreword
Featuring more than two hundred outstanding objects gathered from private and public collections, As Above, So Below provides the first comprehensive survey of the rich vein of art created during the “golden age” of the American fraternal society. By the turn of the twentieth century, an estimated 70,000 local lodges affiliated with hundreds of distinct American fraternal societies claimed a combined five and a half million members. It has been estimated that at least 20 percent of the American adult male population belonged to one or more fraternal orders, including the two largest groups, the Freemasons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The esoteric knowledge, visual symbols, and moral teachings revealed to lodge brothers during secret rituals inspired an abundant and expressive body of objects that form an important facet of American folk art.
Lynne Adele and Bruce Lee Webb introduce the reader to fraternal societies and explore the function and meaning of fraternal objects, including paintings and banners, costumes and ceremonial regalia, ritual objects, and an array of idiosyncratic objects that represent a grassroots response to fraternalism. Setting the art in historical context, the authors examine how fraternal societies contributed to American visual culture during this era of burgeoning fraternal activity. Simultaneously entertaining and respectful of the fraternal tradition, As Above, So Below opens lodge room doors and invites the reader to explore the compelling and often misunderstood works from the golden age of fraternity, once largely forgotten and now coveted by collectors.
It’s a book so beautifully designed and illustrated that one is tempted to don a fez and make a secret sign.
[a[ superbly illustrated volume, the first of its kind to investigate secret societies with such an uncommonly rich and informative visual presentation.
There’s an inspiring and wacky solemnity in these organizations—high values reinforced through pageantry and performance in an ecumenical social setting—which deep down must also have been a whole lot of fun. Now it’s as if that foundational Other America, that underpinning of the America we know, has gradually eroded, and here we remain, living in a world that is a mere shell, a movie set, of the world that made our world manifest, that brought it into being, and all we have left are these perplexing masks, banners, and costumes to puzzle over.
LYNNE ADELE, an independent art historian with an extensive art museum and commercial art gallery background, has specialized in the work of self-taught, folk, and outsider artists for more than twenty-five years. She has written and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs, books, and journals on American folk art; her exhibition catalog Spirited Journeys: Self-Taught Texas Artists of the Twentieth Century has become a standard reference in the field.
BRUCE LEE WEBB has been a collector of fraternal objects for more than twenty-five years. He is a 32º Scottish Rite Mason, Royal Arch Mason, Cryptic Mason, and Knight Templar; he is also an Odd Fellow and is a Royal Purple degree member of the Odd Fellows Encampment. He has been initiated into the Order of the Eastern Star, the Rebekahs, and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife Julie own Webb Gallery, which specializes in the work of self-taught, folk, and outsider artists.
About As Above, So Below
Foreword: Art from the Other America, by David Byrne
Prefaces, by Lynne Adele and Bruce Lee Webb
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Rise of American Fraternal Societies in the Nineteenth Century
Immigrant Societies
African American Societies
Religious Societies
Fraternal Buildings
2. The Growth of an Industry
3. Societies with Secrets: An Introduction to Fraternal Orders
Freemasonry
Odd Fellowship
Knights of Pythias
Speculative Woodcraft
Modern Woodmen of America
Woodmen of the World
Improved Order of Red Men
Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange)
The Objects: A Symbolic Art
4. Death Related Imagery / Memento Mori
5. Painting
6. Banners
7. The Magic Lantern
8. Chromolithographs
9. Costumes and Regalia
Costumes
Ceremonial Regalia and Parade Dress
Fraternal Aprons
10. Three-Dimensional Ritual Objects
11. The Lodge Goat: The Lighter Side of Fraternalism
12. Vernacular Expressions of Fraternity
John Haley Bellamy
Tramp Art
Trench Art of World War I
Textiles
13. Monumental Expressions of Fraternalism
Mendocino Lodge No. 179, Mendocino, California
Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest, Valton, Wisconsin
Samuel P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden, Lucas, Kansas
14. Brothers at Rest: Fraternal Funerary Traditions
Notes
Bibliography
The Authors
Photography Credits
Index
Curating at the Edge
Artists Respond to the U.S./Mexico Border
By Kate Bonansinga; Introduction by Lucy Lippard
