Winthrop Eager Acrostic "Portrait"

Maker H. Wilcox (American)

Additional Title(s)

H. Wilcox, Winthrop Eager Acrostic (Masonic), 1811

Collections

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1811

Mediumwatercolor and ink on paper

Dimensionsframe: 21 3/8 x 15 1/4 x 1 in. (54.3 x 38.7 x 2.5 cm.) frame opening: 18 1/4 × 12 1/8 in. (46.4 × 30.8 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Jonathan and Karin Fielding

Status

On view

Label TextThis "portrait" of Major Winthrop Eager documents his membership in the secret order of Freemasons (prominent Freemasons in the Revolutionary era included George Washington and Alexander Hamilton) and would likely have been shown only to other members. Replete with masonic symbols (square and compasses, crossed keys, trowel), its acrostic poem - in which the first letter of each line spells out Eager's name - celebrates the Masons' devotion to virtue and enlightenment. Eager, born in Massachusetts in 1782, was an officer in the Fourth Regiment of the U.S. Infantry. As such, he would have seen service in the nations' wars with Indians in the Northwest Territory, which flared up in 1822 at the Battle of Tippecanoe in present-day Indiana. The phrase, "If called to a distant county, be mindful of absent friends" may allude to Eager's departure west.

Object number2016.25.103