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.