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Title: Grand United Order Odd Fellows America [membership certificate]
Description: Membership certificate for the African American fraternal organization containing an allegorical view that includes Odd Fellow iconography. Shows the female figures of Justice and Truth standing on globes and flanking a framed view of an ark at sea. Justice holds a sword and scale and Truth holds a torch, serpent, and a mirror from which a light shines. Visible within and bordering the view are Odd Fellow symbols, including the sickle and hourglass, dove, skull and crossbones, the lamb, heart-in-hand, and the lion. Above the view the female figure Charity sits and holds children in her lap below the all Seeing Eye in the night sky under a rainbow marked "G.U.O. of O.F." The G.U.O.O.F was established in 1843 with a charter from the Grand Lodge in Manchester, England., Not in Wainwright., Copyrighted by D. B. Bowser, probably the artist., Issued to David B. Bowser, Unity Lodge, No. 711, G.U. O. of O.F. on July 10, 1844. Signed James Needham, N[oble] F[ather], James McCrummill, N[oble] G[rand] and Joshua Campbell, P. S[ecretary]., Philadelphia on Stone, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Odd Fellows, Bowser, was a prominent African American ornamental artist and social activist, who specialized in signs, banners, and paraphernalia in addition to portraiture. Major commissions included volunteer firefighter apparel and equipment, Civil War pictorial banners, and Grand United Order of Odd Fellows regalia.
Date: c1843
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania | Print Department | HSP at LCP HSP Certificates - Odd Fellows

Title: Testimonial banquet to Ms. Eugenia M. Neal. Daughter Ruler Keystone Temple, No. 448 I.B.P.O.E.W., Dec. 8, 1930. O. V. Catto Elks Home, Philadelphia
Description: Panoramic group portrait photograph depicting over one hundred African American men and women, of all ages, at a testimonial banquet of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World for Eugenia Neal (1873-1949). The attendees, attired in evening wear, sit at rows of tables and a few booths in the right of the room. Attendees wear suits, tuxedos, and evening and cocktail dresses. Most of the sitters do not smile and face the camera. Some are turned away or eating. Some of the men wear their I.B.P.O.E.W. fezzes. In the right background, one woman has an arch of flowers over her. The tables are covered in white tablecloths and lined with plates of food, serving platters, and silver pitchers. In the background, at the back of the room, a small band of men musicians is seated next to a woman at a piano. Streamers and a paper bell adorn the ceiling. The O.V. Catto Elks Lodge began in 1903 as a chapter of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World established in 1897 with a mission to "practice charity by providing and performing charitable services in our communities throughout the world and by promoting harmony, friendship, and unity among our esteemed members." By 1926, the Lodge had over 3000 members, and in 1929, it relocated to a new building that included a boxing ring, basketball court, and rooftop garden, at 16th and Fitzwater. Eugenia Neal, born Eugenia Brisby in Virginia, worked as a typesetter in Philadelphia by 1920. Married to Moses Neal in 1896, the couple resided in Atlantic City before relocating to Philadelphia by 1910. As a Daughter Ruler, Neal lead the Keystone Temple with her male counterpart, Exalted Ruler, and "under their leadership, all Elks shall show[ed] truth in activities and live[d] to help others, while promoting Brotherly and Sisterly Love to all.", Title and date from item.
Date: [1930]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department framed graphics [P.2023.5]

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