The Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York collection has potentially the only Masonic medal ever issued by the US Congress. To commemorate the centennial of the death of George Washington in 1899, the US Congress issued four commemorative medals to fund the Washington Monument Association in 1902 to erect what it claimed to be the only George Washington statue as a citizen. It was not until 1904 that the medal was struck in silver and bronze at the Philadelphia, PA, mint.

The collection features George Washington on the obverse with four reverse variants; Surveyor variant, Firemen variant, Husbandry variant, and Masonic variant. The four medals reflected his life and time as a citizen in Virginia, where he spent his career as a surveyor, a fireman, and a farmer, and served as the Master of his Masonic Lodge.

The reverse of the Masonic variant displays a Masonic apron with a square and compasses and the inscription of Alexandria Lodge No.22 of Virginia, the Lodge that he was the Master of in 1788. This Masonic design was suggested by a committee consisting of lodge officers from lodges in Alexandria, VA. This could also suggest that George Washington’s strong connection with the Freemasons was still widely acknowledged back in that time.

Republished with pemission from The Lamplight Newletter,  the Quarterly Newsletter of the Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York