Mr. Bernard Kahn lived in Camden, the busy port and transportation hub on the Delaware River in southwest New Jersey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey
In June of 1908, Bernard received a postcard photograph from Baltimore, Maryland.
The postcard is not signed, so we do not know what friend, colleague, family member, or postcard exchange partner might have mailed it to Bernard.
The face of the postcard shows the towering monument to James L. Ridgely that stands in Baltimore’s Harlem Park.
The printed caption above the statue reads, “James L. Ridgely Monument in Harlem Park (a prominent Odd Fellow), Baltimore, MD.”
The postcard was published by Baltimore Stationery Company and was “Made in Germany”.
James Lot Ridgely (1807-1881) was an interesting fellow – a native of Baltimore, he studied law at the University of Maryland and was admitted to the bar.
He held various elected and appointed offices, including member of the Baltimore City Council, Delegate to the Maryland House, and member of the Baltimore County Board of Education.
In his youth, Ridgely joined the Order of Odd Fellows, one of many mutual aid organizations that existed in the 19th century -before affordable individual insurance policies became available.
Ridgely was President of the Baltimore County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, so his professional life reflected his Odd Fellow commitment to mutual aid.
Rising through the ranks of the Odd Fellows Order, Ridgely eventually became “Grand Sire”, the highest rank in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Ridgely
He toured England, and observed how the Odd Fellows abroad existed largely as an insurance company for the payment of death benefits.
Ridgely believed that the Order should encompass moral and social principles, and was largely responsible for changing the character of US Order to become an engine of greater personal engagement, social support, and community enrichment.
After a dispute over governance, Ridgely led the withdrawal of US Odd Fellows into the “Independent Order of Odd Fellows”.
The Order was nicknamed the “Triple Link Fraternity” for its motto: “Friendship, Love, and Truth”.
The Odd Fellows prospered enormously after the Civil War, and became the largest fraternal organization in the US- outnumbering the Freemasons.
The Order accepted female members into an auxiliary in 1851, and chartered lodges for African American members – the first was in Philadelphia.
(The Odd Fellows did not become wholly integrated until the 20th century.)
The Odd Fellows counted a world-wide membership of more than 2 million in 1922, but that was the high point of the Order.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows
Commercial insurance became more widely-available during the 1920’s and the New Deal especially, the introduction of Social Security) further lessened the attractions of the fraternal organizations.
Ridgely died during the “Golden Age of Fraternalism” and this monument was erected in 1885, four years after his death.
https://www.si.edu/object/james-l-ridgely-monument-sculpture%3Asiris_ari_334543
Today, very few observers of this grand memorial would understand the history that it represents.
