Insights from PCC Intern: Rebecca - Winward Prescott's own masonic bookplate

Winward Prescott (1886 – 1932) was, among other things, a collector and scholar of bookplates. His own bookplates are some of the most unique in CSU LA’s collection. He wrote several books and pamphlets about bookplates including “Masonic Bookplates” (Four Seas, 1918). 

That book discusses and catalogs bookplates belonging to individual freemasons as well as masonic lodges. In case you’re not familiar, freemasons are members of a fraternal organization modeled on ancient stonemason guilds and organized into masonic lodges. The once-secret society seems to have originated around the turn of the 16^th Century¹ and its use of rituals, symbols, and claims of secret knowledge have sparked public imagination ever since. Whether you believe freemasons control the world, are just a social club, or something in between, know that Winward Prescott, bookplate collector and associate English professor at MIT, was a member.²

Although not included in his book, this particular example seems to be Prescott’s own take on a masonic bookplate. Prescott writes in “Masonic Bookplates” that some of the most common masonic symbols include a square and compass with the letter G and the all-seeing eye in the triangle. Prescott uses less widely recognized symbols in his bookplate.

At center, a nude woman, shown from the hip up, stands with one arm around an owl, her other hand holding a shield. She likely represents Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, who frequently appears with an owl known as the Owl of Minerva. 

The Owl of Minerva was actually the original symbol used by Adam Weishaupt when he founded the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati in the 18^thCentury, an even more contentious secret society which had overlapping membership with freemasons. Jason Duaine Hahn writes that it’s odd that people today associate the pyramid or eye with the Illuminati rather than the owl.³

Back to Prescott’s bookplate - the owl stands on what appears to be a helmet, somewhat similar to those of the Knights Templar, but I haven't found an exact match. The Knights Templar were a papally sanctioned Catholic military order active during the 12th to the 14th centuries of the Crusades,⁴ and freemasons have used their name and imagery.⁵

On the shield in Minerva’s hand is the word “ΑΝΑΓΚΗ” which means “fate” in Greek. In choosing this particular word, Prescott may have been referencing Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” in which “ΑΝΑΓΚΗ” is scrawled on a wall in one of the towers of the cathedral, which is said to have masonic symbols throughout its architecture.

On the shield, just below “ΑΝΑΓΚΗ” is a skull and crossbones - a symbol of mortality meant to encourage reflection on one’s life. This type of reflection is a masonic imperative⁶ and may stem from the medieval Christian practice of memento mori.⁷

In the upper right corner of the bookplate, handwritten in block letters, is the phrase “CHOOSE WELL YOUR CHOICE IS BRIEF YET ENDLESS.” This is a quotation from the poem “The Mason-Lodge” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of German’s most renowned writers of all time. Though it is not necessarily common knowledge, Goethe was a freemason.

Here we have the counterpoint to the inescapable fate of death – act now! Choose well. And the wisdom of Minerva and her Owl may be a guide in this struggle.

Hopefully, Prescott heeded these words while he lived, for fate struck early. In 1932, at age 46, while cleaning a gun in the study of his home, Winward Prescott accidentally fatally shot himself.⁸

- Rebecca Schiffman

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¹ Ruggeri, Amanda. “Travel - The Lost History of the Freemasons.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Dec. 2016, www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161209-secret-history-of-the-freemasons-in-scotland.

² “Prof Winward Prescott.” The Boston Globe, 3 Mar. 1932, p. 19.

³ Hahn, Jason Duaine. “So, What Exactly Is the Illuminati Conspiracy?” Complex, Complex, 1 June 2018, www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/02/what-is-the-illuminati-conspiracy-and-who-are-its-members/.

⁴ Barber, Malcolm. The New Knighthood: a History of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

⁵ Hodapp, Christopher. Freemasons for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2013.

⁶ “The Skull & Crossbones and Freemasonry--You're Doing It Wrong.” The Midnight Freemasons, www.midnightfreemasons.org/2015/02/the-skull-crossbones-and-freemasonry_9.html.

⁷ Burkle KT, Brother William Steve. “Memento Mori - The Symbol of the Skull with Crossbones.” PS Review of Freemasonry, www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/skull-bones.html.

⁸ “Tech Associate Professor Killed.” The Boston Globe, 2 Mar. 1932, p. 24.

Insights from PCC Intern: Rebecca - a bookplate by Mary Crete Crouch

While gathering metadata for CSU LA’s bookplate digitization project over the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to scrutinize hundreds of artist-designed bookplates from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. I’ve found myself particularly drawn to the few bookplates artists designed for themselves.

On first glance, Mary Crete Crouch’s whimsical and enigmatic M.C.C. bookplate stood out. The motifs - a Pierrot (an archetypal mime character dating back to late-17th Century Italy), a stack of papers, snakes, and roses - didn’t add up to anything familiar. The mysterious scene implied inside references, something personal. Realizing, based on the initials, that Crouch had probably designed this bookplate for herself piqued my interest further.

For a client, an artist may be working within strict guidelines, on a deadline with limited revisions, or simply reusing one of their own stock images - so that it's hard for us to know how satisfied the artist or client was with the final product, or for whom the design held the most meaning. But working for oneself, we can imagine or at least hope that the artist designed exactly what they wanted. 

Happily, when I removed the M.C.C. bookplate from its protective sleeve for scanning, a handwritten note on the back confirmed it as Crouch’s own and elucidated some of its meaning.

Mary Crete Crouch’s bookplate is printed in black ink on light-colored paper and executed with a neat but hand drawn feel. Centered near the top is a line drawing of a Pierrot in a conical hat with three pompoms, frilled collaret, loose tunic, and pantaloons. Shown from behind, he is bending over to pick up the top pages from a stack of papers. The catch is that the pages are giant - Pierrot’s arms just barely reach both ends as he struggles to lift them. The tips of the pages extend past the edges of a simple circular frame, adding depth and playfully emphasizing the ridiculous scale.

Below this frame is a white oval space where three twisting serpents form the initials “MCC.” While the Pierrot and monogram are done in black ink on a white background, the surrounding negative space is filled in with black ink, on top of which white thorny stems with roses form vertical lines across. 

Handwritten on the backside of the bookplate:

“Des. by Mary Crete Crouch for scrap books. Have taken the part of Pierrot in a play. Turning over a new leaf. Sounds worse than it really is.”

Was performing, rather than visual art, the turning over of a new leaf for Crouch? Or was it something more personal? Either way, the handwritten note explains that Crouch is Pierrot and the “leaves” of paper are a pun. The note and the struggling Pierrot reveal a self-deprecatory sense of humor. 

A 1905 article in the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Highly Successful Society Function Attended by Many San Franciscans” describes a Café Chantant night at the Crocker Art Gallery as “full of fun” and goes on to list the performers including Mary Crete Crouch as “Pierrot, pantomimist.”

Mary Crete Crouch was born in Virginia City, Nevada in 1867 but spent most of her life in Sacramento, California¹ where she was an artist, illustrator, and perhaps a socialite.

Crouch had been exhibiting artwork around Sacramento since at least 1898, when the Sacramento Daily Union praised her paintings and wood and leather etchings in an article about the third annual Arts Students League exhibition.

Crouch was a member of the Kingsley Art Club, studied and exhibited at the Crocker Art Gallery – today a museum, and was a board member of the Ladies’ Museum Association (her older sister Bessie was President), which raised money for the gallery.²

Crouch also illustrated several books for Sacramento-based J. Anderson Press including “Up in Alaska” (1912) by Esther Birdsall Darling, “The Spirit of Peace (1912) by Fred Emerson Brooks, “Memory’s Potlatches” (1913) by Mrs. William Beckman, and “Twilight Fair Tales” (1914) by May Showler Groves.

In 1927 the Kingsley Art Club began holding an annual exhibition of local Sacramento artists, and Crouch appears to have exhibited paintings each year through 1931³, the year of her death.

CSU LA’s bookplate collection includes four more Mary Crete Crouch bookplates which she designed for others.

In 1907, the Sacramento Union described another more society event, put on by the Ladies’ Museum Association, at the Crocker Art Gallery. Crouch performed as a “Goose girl” singing a song “with a clog pose dance excellently done and convulsing the audience with mirth.” The paper noted it was the first night the room had been lit by electricity, although a blown fuse necessitated the use of candles for several hours during the festivities.⁴

- by Rebecca Schiffman

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¹ “Mary Crete Crouch.” AskArt, www.askart.com/artist/Mary_Crete_Crouch/10012224/Mary_Crete_Crouch.aspx.

² Steele, Myra D. “Society.” Sacramento Union, 7 Nov. 1913, p. 12.

³ Fifty Years of Crocker-Kingsley: a Retrospective Exhibition: April 5 - May 4, 1975, E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento. E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1975.

⁴ “Last Night at the Art Gallery.” Sacramento Union, 13 Feb. 1907, p. 2.

Blog Spot: Special Collections Student Assistant Carlos Carbajal

Hi! I’m Carlos Carbajal, and I am a graduate student working toward my M.A. in History at Cal State LA. My areas of interest in history are modern U.S. history specifically looking at transnational migration from Latin America and Diasporas of Latinx communities in the United States. When I’m not reading stacks of books or writing papers, I enjoy exploring food culture in Los Angeles, traveling, watching soccer games (Go Manchester United!), nerding out about Star Wars stuff, and playing video games (currently playing: Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

I have been a student assistant for the Special Collections & Archives Department since May 2017. I have enjoyed my time here and look forward to working with the department while I complete my graduate studies. I am currently processing the Julian C. Dixon Collection which includes files from the Congressional Black Caucus and other transnational documents. While my job is to organize and preserve the documents in the collection, I feel the most satisfaction from reading and analyzing the documents in the context of when they were created. As a history student, this job has been instrumental in broadening my ability to think historically and expand my understanding of modern U.S. history. One of the first projects I worked on as a student assistant over the summer intercession was to help find memorable articles in the University Times for an exhibit that chronicled the 70th anniversary of Cal State LA. When I am not processing my collection, I work on other projects like creating exhibits (most recently helped curate the Halloween exhibit), digitizing the University Times, and assist students/researchers use our special collections.

My experience at Cal State LA and Special Collections & Archives have benefitted my personal and academic development. During my time at the university, I have made friendships and connections with incredible professors, staff, and students that challenge me to go outside my comfort zone and for those experiences I will always be grateful. After I graduate from Cal State LA, I will be looking to teach at the community college level, and I want to take the lessons I have learned here and pass that knowledge on to future students. Finally, as a future educator, I will use the skills I have learned in the Special Collections & Archives to make students aware about the impact of archival work and the historical significance about preserving historical collections.

Blog Spot: Special Collections Student Assistant Stephany Bravo

"Statewide Conference at California State University, Los Angeles" 
 (1988)
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán at Cal State LA Collection
John F. Kennedy Mmeorial Library,
California State University, Los Angeles 

Since my placement as an Archival Student Assistant, I have independently and/or in a collective processed material for the Perry R. Long Memorial Collection and the InnerCity Struggle Collection. I continue to process and archive material for The Compton Communicative Arts Academy, which still continues to grow since there is always new material being found during the renovation of Special Collections and Archives. 

Some of the new projects that I am currently working on are the processing and archiving of material for the John Burgess Glass Collection and the Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) at Cal State LA Collection. The John Burgess Glass Collection will be the largest collection that I have been given in a topic that is not in my field of expertise. However, the collection has definitely diversified the extent of my knowledge by allowing me to work with film and journals. Another project that I am working with “on and off” is the California State Los Angeles Collection. Even though I am simply replacing rusted staples with archival paper clips, this collection proves to have a lot of scattered articles about CSULA’s Black Student Union, the Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies Department, general student activism, and buildings on campus that should be further investigated by whoever officially archives this collection.

"Seize the Time" and "Photographers depict essence of urban life"
(1970 and 1982)
California State Los Angeles Collection
John F. Kennedy Memorial Library
California State University, Los Angeles 

Overall, I continue to be satisfied with my choice to apply as an intern at CSULA Special Collections and Archives. I have learned to digitize thesis, curate exhibits, create finding aids, archive, and preserve materials. I believe that working in Special Collections and Archives has granted me multiple opportunities such as; co-curating “Lxs de abajo” Latinx Performative Text from Below in the Los Angeles Area,” presenting “Ethnic Simplicity: Painting Black and Latinx Visual Narratives” at Sonoma State University through Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, being named a Sally Casanova Scholar for the 2017-2018 academic year, and finally being clear about my career path as both a professor of Ethnic Studies and a curator of all things relating to Chicanx and Latinx popular culture.

Photograph by Karina Cardenas (2017)

Staphany Bravo García
B.A. Chicana/o Studies, and Latin American Studies, 2015

University of California, Santa Barbara

M.A. Mexican American Studies, 2018 California State University, Los Angeles

A second year Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies M.A. student, Staphany Bravo García is interested in the production of “counter”-narratives specifically as they apply to people of color. She is currently analyzing the creative ways Compton’s “un-recorded” Latinx residents resist symbolic and material erasure within mainstream narratives through murals, music, poetry, and physical place.


Research Interests: Decolonial Methods and Theory, Comparative Race and Ethnicity, Chicanx Literature, Art: Murals, Graffiti, Tagging, and Spoken Word, Chicana/o and Latina/o Popular Culture, Configurations of Space and Place, Community Autonomy, Archiving and Curating 

 

Blog Spot: Special Collections Student Assistant Jourdan Pineda

Courtesy of Carlos Carbajal

My name in Jordan Pineda and I am currently working on my B.S. in Biochemistry as well as being a pre-dental student. Throughout the years, history has always been an interesting subject to me. I enjoy reading about past events and learning about different cultures. Volunteering is also a passion of mine. During high school, I was a part of Day One, a nonprofit organization, which focused on healthy community living. As a volunteer, I helped introduce and pass legislation which introduced bike lanes into the city of El Monte. Other than volunteering, I enjoy reading and watching Game of Thrones.

I applied for the Special Collections department because rare artifacts and books are intriguing to me. With my experience as a library assistant, I wanted to dive deeper on how archival collections are organized and stored. I started as a Special Collections and Archives Library Assistant on November 2016, and my first project was processing a comic book collection! My favorite part of working on collections is when I am able to stop and actually read the content. I could not resist opening up some comic books and reading some pages while processing the collection! Other collections I have processed include the John B. Glass Collection and Federal Employees' Distributing Company (FEDCO) Collection, as well as digitizing the University Times, and helping install exhibits. My current project is pertaining to the Cal State LA Music Department, which includes CDs and programs produced by the music department. Not only have I enjoyed my time working here, but I have also learned a tremendous amount of how exhibits and collections are created and used. Assisting researchers, creating inventory lists, digitization, and book shelving are some of the responsibilities that I have learned and developed during my time working here. With the help of my coworkers, being a Special Collections assistant has been a truly wonderful experience.

Courtesy of Frank Yan

Although I am a science major, the experiences in Special Collections can truly help me in my future endeavors. As an assistant, I have learned to work in a professional working environment. I learned that items such as rare books and artifacts hold valuable information and tell stories about past historical events. These stories are critical resources for researchers and students to learn more about the past. With never-ending documents and archival artifacts, the work that archivists do are very significant to the university. My respect for the purpose of Special Collections and archivists in general has greatly expanded the way I look at the importance for keeping safe historical information.

Jourdan Pineda
B.S. Biochemistry Student

Undocumented Lives – Archives of Erasure and Emergence Exhibition

ARCHIVES OF ERASURE & EMERGENCE

PUBLIC DISCUSSION  DIALOGUE

This gallery exhibits objects and art contributed by undocumented Cal State LA students and community members. Highlighting the intimate and the individual, the gallery refuses any reduction of undocumented immigrant experience to a set of statistics, fearmongering bombast, or one-dimensional narratives that pit “model minority” Dreamers against criminalized parents. 

The exhibition will run from November 13 - December 28, 2017

Blog Spot: Special Collections Student Assistant Jocelyn Acosta

Photo courtesy of Nicole Lim

My name is Jocelyn Acosta. I am a graduate student earning my master on Mesoamaerican archaeology. My focus is on caves and sacred landscape in the Honduran region. I’ve been twice to Belize conducting research on a collapse chultun (artificial man-made cave) and caves under Cal States LA’s Sacred Landscape Archaeological Project (S.L.A.P.) 2014-15. I participated in the Mojave Desert field school in 2016 with Cal State LA’s China Lake Archaeological Research Program. In my spare time when I’m not doing research or digging in dirt, I volunteer at the Autry Museum of the American West in their Archaeology department working on their Mesoamerican collection. Also, I am a Public Relations Officer for the Society for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Cal State LA. I share information to our community about events happening in our campus or our community. 

Photo courtesy of Jamie Zeffery

After I was done volunteering for The Foundation of Heaven: The Great Temple of the Aztecs A Symposium in Homage to Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, I attended Transcultural Dialogues: The Books of Mesoamerica and Colonial Mexico that was displayed at JFK Memorial Library. I was interested in being part of Special Collections and applied when there was a student assistant position. My experience at Special Collections and Archives has taught me how to create catalogs, set up exhibits, make labels, handle archival material and become a better researcher. Volunteering at the Autry Museum I can see the similarities in skills that I have acquired working in Special Collections. I know I will leave with great experience when I graduate and someday work in for a museum.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Zeffery

I have been working at Special Collections and Archives since summer 2017. I have been working on Wayne Ruwet Papers. Wayne Ruwet was Mesoamerican scholar and Librarian at UCLA. His collection will help grow our Mesoamerican Studies Program and allow students, like myself, to be able to advance with our research here on campus. I also have been part of events here at Special Collection and Archives, recently we had the Collection Day part of Preserving Y(our) Legacy series on campus, where we displayed some our collections. This event was to encourage students to share their archival materials as Cal State LA students that they would like to be part of Cal State LA’s history.