In December of 1867, Edward Holland Caldwell (1844-1872) of Mobile, Alabama, received the fourteenth degree at the newly established Mobile Lodge of Perfection No. 1. The following year he received the eighteenth degree, and later, the thirty-second degree. Caldwell’s handsome jewels for the eighteenth and thirty-second degrees survive and are now part of the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library.

Crafted of silver and cut-glass stones, Caldwell’s jewels were formed in the shape of symbols associated with the eighteenth and thirty-second degrees. The eighteenth-degree jewel is in the shape of a compasses topped with a crown. Within the compasses is a cross highlighted with red stones and a pelican feeding seven chicks. Caldwell’s thirty-second degree jewel is in the shape of a crown on top of a cross with arms of equal length with leaves or a wreath between the arms. At the center of the cross is the number 32 reverse painted on glass in gold and black. On the back side of the jewel, at the center of the cross, two crossed swords are reverse painted on glass in black and gold.

Before he took his Scottish Rite degrees, Caldwell likely became a Mason in Mobile Lodge No. 40, the largest Masonic lodge in Alabama in the 1860s. He later joined Athelstan Lodge No. 369. In 1868, when he took the eighteenth degree, he was the father of two young sons and involved in a local business. Caldwell and Emil Oscar Zadek (1848-1908) owned “Zadek & Caldwell, Importers and Manufacturers of Fine Jewelry” from about 1866. The firm advertised “handsome jewelry of every description. Also watches, silver ware, plated ware, opera glasses, etc.,” for customers in search of “an elegant article at reasonable prices….” Zadek was, according to the local paper, an accomplished craftsman who was not “surpassed in Mobile as a gold or silver smith.” Caldwell’s Scottish Rite jewels are not marked with the name of the manufacturer, so it is not known if his firm produced them in Mobile, or if Caldwell obtained them from another source.

Caldwell had grown up in New Orleans, the son of a remarkably successful actor, theater owner, and entrepreneur James Henry Caldwell (1793-1863). As a young student, Edward Caldwell attended Spring Hill College in Mobile in 1856 and 1857. Only a few years after he joined with Zadek in the jewelry business, Edward Caldwell's business and circumstances changed dramatically when his older brother died. In 1870 Edward Caldwell inherited a large estate and his brother’s position as the president of the Mobile Gas, Light and Coke Company. The firm had been founded by the brothers’ father.

Caldwell’s time as the head of the Mobile Gas, Light and Coke Company was short lived. He died just two years later while visiting New York City. An obituary in a New Orleans newspaper lauded Caldwell as “noted among his friends for the geniality of his disposition and his boundless liberality." The writer also described Caldwell's philanthropy, observing that "no call for charity" made to him was unnoticed. All appeals to him, the writer continued, received "a cheerful response" from Caldwell. As a sign of respect, when Edward Caldwell's body was sent from New York, area Freemasons escorted it to the depot in New Orleans before it was put on a train to Mobile, where Caldwell was eventually buried. Caldwell's two handsome Scottish Rite jewels serve as a reminder of his involvement in Freemasonry and speak to his pride in his association with the fraternity. 

Eighteenth Degree Jewel Worn by Edward Holland Caldwell of Mobile, Alabama, 1868. Museum Purchase, 2022.004.2. Photograph by Michael Cardinali.	Thirty Second Jewel Worn by Edward Holland Caldwell of Mobile, Alabama, 1868-1872. Museum Purchase, 2022.004.1. Photograph by Michael Cardinali.

Hilary Anderson Stelling, Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Lexington, Massachusetts