Master Mason Certificate, 1832
A young engraver, Charles Cushing Wright, designed this certificate sometime before 1818. He also crafted designs for engraved Masonic aprons around the same time. He left blanks in the certificate text where a lodge secretary could fill in the recipient’s degree, the lodge name, its number and location. With this flexibility, the certificate could be sold to different lodges. Several years after Wright made this certificate, officers of a Pennsylvania lodge filled it out for newly-minted Master Mason Sidney Hayden.