Throughout history wood has been used to create useful as well as beautiful and decorative objects. In the early 19th century vast forests still remained in North America, supplying a ready resource for all manner of tools and objects used in daily life. Self-taught artisans created utilitarian objects such as bowls, chairs, tools, boxes, and shelves. Most wood folk objects were made for use, with decoration as a secondary concern.

Occasionally, however, one finds things which were made simply for the pleasure of the making. Masonic folk art is an example of artisans creating wood objects to beautify their lodge. Handmade wooden pillars, chairs, altars, and ritual objects were created to grace the lodge room and honor the brotherhood. Boxes, canes, and artwork, created to store aprons or educate the initiate, were carved or inlaid with Masonic symbols. The symbolic vocabulary of the craft, used as decoration and ornament on household objects, thus became part of the everyday. These eloquent objects, in which the myths, tenets, and values of fraternity are celebrated, have survived through generations and continue to inspire us.