Many people find it suspicious that American banknotes feature a pyramid with a glowing eye. We checked how reliable conspiracy theories based on this observation about the connection of the Freemasons with the founding of the United States are.
The pyramid, along with the glowing eye, also known as the Eye of Providence, or the All-Seeing Eye, is located on the reverse of the US dollar bill. This design was accepted in 1935, when images of both sides of the Great Seal of the United States were placed on the banknote - the Eye adorns one of them. According to the official version, this symbol means the strength of the American nation and its continuous development. However, conspiracy theorists have developed their own interpretation - allegedly in this way the Masons who participated in the creation of the new state perpetuated their contribution.
Development of the first design of the Great Seal of the United States was studying a commission consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and guest artist Pierre Eugene du Simitiere. Each of them offered their own sketch. In du Simitiere's version, at the center of the seal was a shield, the six parts of which symbolized the places of origin of the main ethnic groups of the settlers: England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Holland. Around this shield were the “initials” of the 13 colonies that formed the new state. On the sides there were figures of Freedom and a soldier, at the bottom - the motto “Out of many, one”, and the composition was crowned with the All-Seeing Eye. Du Simitiere's option was considered in August 1776. Although the final design approved only six years later, much less allegorical, some of the elements proposed by the artist were included in it. So the All-Seeing Eye ended up on the back of the seal.
Although the Eye of Providence is now closely associated with Freemasonry, the situation was very different in the 1770s and 1780s. At that time the image used Only a few Freemasons privately, but this symbol is generally accepted among the “freemasons” became at least a decade and a half after the seal design was approved, when in 1797 Thomas Smith Webb published book The Freemason's Monitor, or Illustrations of Masonry. It was since then that the symbol entered into traditional Masonic iconography.
It is much more likely that du Simitiere borrowed the image from his fellow artists, including those who lived several centuries earlier. For example, a luminous eye enclosed in a pyramid depicted in a painting by the Italian Pantormo, painted in 1525. The symbol was also used in architecture - it can be found, for example, on Column of the Holy Trinity in Czech Olomouc (1716–1754) and in Aachen Cathedral (1766). For centuries, this symbol has been associated with God watching over people. The image probably played the same role in the sketches for the Great Seal - the Creator “looks after” the young American nation.
Separately, we note that modern researchers do not have evidence linking du Simitiere with the Freemasons. Of all the commissions that were involved in the creation of the Great Seal, only Benjamin Franklin can be clearly count to the "free masons". However, Franklin's proposed ideas were not used in the final design. Moreover, how emphasizes researcher of conspiracy theories Ilya Yablokov, at the end of the 18th century, anti-Masonic sentiments played a big role in the domestic politics of the United States - it is unlikely that any Masonic symbol at that time could have appeared in such a capacity on one of the state attributes.
Mostly not true
- Arzamas. Where does the pyramid with the eye come from on the dollar? And other US conspiracy theories
- BBC Culture. The Eye of Providence: The symbol with a secret meaning?
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