We recently had the privilege of handling a fantastic piece of US history – an embroidered silk Masonic apron belonging to George Washington.
The apron belongs to the historic Holland Lodge No. 8, F. & A.M. in New York City. Chartered in 1787, Holland Lodge is one of the oldest Masonic Lodges in the country and is an important part of our country’s story on its own.
Dating to the last quarter of the 18th century and likely crafted by a Connecticut Freemason, the apron was presented to Washington by Pennsylvania Masons attached to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Washington subsequently gifted it to General Horatio Gates, and it passed through the Gates family for generations before being acquired by Holland Lodge in the 1920s or 1930s, where it has been carefully preserved ever since.
The apron is richly decorated with Masonic symbolism – the All-Seeing Eye, the Twin Pillars, the Sun and Moon, the Checkerboard Floor, and the Square and Compasses and is housed in an archival gilded frame with a brass plaque.
