This well-composed drawing and a signed companion piece in a private collection provide insights into the political and religious views of Franklin Wilder but only hints of his identity. He was implacably, perhaps obsessively, opposed to secret or oath-bound societies and was particularly outraged by the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. In the text of this work, he states that any person taking an oath to one of these groups has committed a great sin against the Holy Ghost and is doomed to an eternal Hell. In the companion piece, he also condemns slavery and “Know-Nothing hypocrisy,” a reference to a political movement of the 1850s that grew out of nativist secret societies and kept its own organizational structure secret as well.

A current of strong and consistent opposition to secret societies may be found among evangelical Christians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fundamentalist preachers regularly railed against them as an anti-Christian social evil. Wilder’s religious affiliation has not been determined, but his hostility to “pledged secretiveness” is in keeping with a conviction that is deeply rooted in American culture.

There is a strangeness to the texts of Wilder’s drawings that may suggest he suffered from mental illness. In this composition, for example, he asserts that his message was compiled and written by the Son of Man, the P[rince] of P[eace], clear references to Jesus Christ. Both of his drawings contain coded language reminiscent of the ritualistic literature of the very organizations that he opposed so vigorously. In a long and rambling statement on the back of the companion piece, Wilder claims that he was “unlawfully confined and otherwise barbacued [sic] by the government for going on twenty three years.” The same statement contains the assertion that he once had been taken before a court, without a warrant, and “sent to the House of Correction for the space of nine months”—further evidence of a troubled life.

Despite the problems he may have faced, Wilder did not discount the possibility that the righteous would prevail in a great war of good against evil. It is almost as if his carefully measured and drawn banners represented battle flags to be carried in the struggle against the lawlessness and racism of the Ku Klux Klan. If there is any doubt about his intent, it is clearly stated in the companion piece: “‘Democracy.’ Freedom and Justice, and Equal Rights, to All Mankind at All Hazard!”

The identity of Franklin Wilder is uncertain; the companion piece, which is clearly the work of the same hand, is signed with that name. An association with central Massachusetts, where members of the Wilder family were well established by the eighteenth century, has descended with the piece. The records of the town of Leominster contain information about a Franklin Wilder (c. 1878–1955) who at various times worked as a mechanic, clerk, and engineer. For at least one year he was employed by the Whitney Reed Chair Co., manufacturers of furniture and children’s toys, including rocking horses. Interestingly, from 1910 to 1918 the Leominster directory lists him as a painter. Except for a couple of brief interludes, he lived in his father’s home until he was 40 years of age or older. He never married. It is possible that Franklin Wilder of Leominster created this drawing, perhaps as a reaction to stepped-up activity by the Ku Klux Klan in central Massachusetts between 1925 and 1935. However, statements in the companion piece about slavery, the Know-Nothing party, and other nineteenth-century political issues may suggest an earlier origin for this work, which would effectively rule him out as its creator.

Gerard C. Wertkin, "The Messiah's Crown," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 363.