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Clockmakers

& Collectors

The exhibition at the

Scottish Rite Masonic

Museum & Library

By Hilary Anderson Stelling
Director of Exhibitions and Audience Development
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library

n the face of fast-paced change in the early 1900s, many Americans sought
to celebrate past ingenuity and seemingly simpler times through collecting
Iantiques. A similar impulse may have influenced Willis Michael (1896-
1969), a tool and die maker, to start his collection of antique American and
European clocks. Michael purchased his first one in the late 1930s, a tall case
clock crafted in the late 1700s by John George Hoff (1733–1816) of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania or his son, also John George Hoff (1788–1822)
(figure 1). Michael soon, as he later said, “got the bug” and his collection
grew. Many of the clocks on view In Keeping Time: Clockmakers and Collectors
at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library in Lexington,
Massachusetts, come from the collection of Willis Michael and his wife, Ruth
Michael (1925-1982). After Mr. Michael died, Ruth Michael began making Figure 1
a series of gifts to the Museum, then newly founded by the Scottish Rite Tall Case Clock, early
Masons of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. She did so in honor of her 1800s. John George
husband’s lifelong involvement in Masonry and the many friendships he had Hoff (1733–1816) or
made through his participation. Mrs. Michaels’ gift of over 140 pieces from John George Hoff
her husband’s collection forms the core of the Museum’s timepiece holdings. (1788–1822),
Other collectors, families and craftsmen have donated to the Museum’s clock Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
and watch collection over the years — It now numbers in the hundreds. Gift of Mrs. Willis R.
Michael, 77.80.5a-k.
Photograph by David Bohl
CLOCKMAKING AND APPRENTICESHIP
Learning how to make clocks required knowledge of metals, mechanics
and math. Clockmakers, like Benjamin Willard (1743-1803) who, as a young
man, made this tall case clock in Lexington, Massachusetts, constructed the
works — the gears, pins, plates and other parts that allow clocks to operate.
Often working with fellow craftsmen like cabinetmakers, engravers and
painters, clockmakers assembled multiple elements to give their clients
finished, working timepiece. In addition to constructing new clocks, makers
earned their living by cleaning and repairing old ones.
To learn the craft, a youngster apprenticed with an experienced maker.
Apprentices committed years of their labor in exchange for room, board,
instruction and experience. Learning from an experienced clockmaker,
apprentices were instructed, in some part, as their teachers’ had been taught,
so traditional methods of manufacturing and repairing clocks lived on
through generations. Through performing tasks in the shop and observing
the master clockmaker and his employees, an apprentice learned how clocks
operated, how to cut gears, how to put together clockworks and how to
conduct a business. Some continued to work for their masters as paid
journeymen after their formal apprenticeship ended. Nathanial Mulliken
(1722-1767) of Lexington, Massachusetts, is thought to have trained
Benjamin Willard — but not for long. Only a year into Willard’s apprentice-
ship, Mulliken died. Willard stayed in Lexington for four years to make
clocks, like this one, with Mulliken’s teenaged son (figure 2). Willard crafted
over 20 clocks per year at different locations in Massachusetts before scarce
metal supplies and an uncertain economy disrupted his work. He also played
a role in training his now well-known brothers, Simon (1753-1848) and
Aaron (1757-1844), in the clockmaking trade.
In the 1700s and early 1800s, the apprenticeship system shaped the clock-
making craft. In spite of this traditional system, inventive clockmakers found
new ways to improve their products and expand their share of the market.

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