Explain tracing Board

A tracing board is a picture or piece of furniture containing representations of the various symbols belonging to a specific degree 1. Originating as designs drawn directly upon the floor of the lodge—whence it was termed the floor-cloth or carpet—a tracing board exists for every degree 1.

While frequently confounded with the trestle-board, even by early Masonic writers such as George Oliver, the two serve distinct functions 1. The trestle-board is a single symbol representing the board whereupon the Master Workman draws architectural designs, signifying the moral plans and Divine guidance by which a Mason constructs his spiritual temple 1. In contrast, the tracing board is a picture or article of furniture displaying a collection of many symbols 1.

These pictorial representations evolved over time. A small tracing board from 1776 depicted the Masonic ladder with only three steps, though the symbol properly contains seven steps representing the four cardinal and three theological virtues 1. William Preston's lectures symbolically compared the Holy Bible to a tracing board, though later scholars noted that the Bible functions instead as a trestle-board, setting out the architectural plan for building a spiritual edifice 1.