The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
9.3.3 Masonic & Anti-Masonic Comics
That the Masonic topic was not taboo but found its way into folk art is
demonstrated by the spread of cartoons depicting Masonic constellations and
situations. During the first half of the 20 th century, one of the promulgators in
Great Britain was Lawson Wood 1953 , who brought the Masonic theme into the
minds of the general public by the means of humorous cartoons in which the
characters were played by animals.
Born in 1878 at Highgate, London, Clarence Lawson Wood started at the age
of 18 to work with magazine publishers C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., whose chief
artist he soon became. Also producing theatrical posters and advertising artwork,
Wood went freelance in 1902. His illustrations were published in Punch,
Illustrated London News, The Graphic, Sketch, and Nash's and Fry's. After
WWI, Wood became famous for his animal pictures and his animal welfare
work, which gained him a Fellowship of the Royal Zoological Society in 1934.
His most popular postcard series featured the chimpanzee Gran'pop, surrounded
by a cast of monkeys, pigs, and other animals. Wood depicted everyday funny
events in his cartoons, the Masonic fraternity being just one group of the society
mocked at, next to judges, policemen, children, and others. The humorous
Masonic scenes of which the following selection is an example may be found at
auctions today, sometimes framed and having decorated many a Mason's home
while they were most trendy, presumably until the 1950s. Lawson Wood died in
1957 at the age of 79.
The cartoon called "Outside the Door of the Lodge" shows a big orang-utan
on the right side, wearing an apron with
the images of a grapevine, a yellow Royal
Arch triple tau, and a pear. This ape is the
Outer Guard or Tyler who makes a secret
hand sign in response to the tokens given
by a little monkey who wants to enter the
lodge. The ape Tyler wears a thick
wooden club instead of the drawn sword.
The lodge door in the background
consists of a cloth hanging from a branch
which is parted in the middle and held
together by another ape who is peeping
through the hole as if through a wicket.
This might be the Inner Guard. The
emblem drawn on the cloth consists of a
red circle, and below it there is a blue
square around a yellow design resembling
1953 Personal data cf. Tony & Valmai Holt, Picture Postcard Artists, and articles by Jim Crawford
and John Hughes in "Picture Postcard Monthly," March 1992 and December 1995, quoted at
www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/3792/bio.htm