In ancient times operative masons used the floor of the planning area to draw designs upon for the craftsmen. The Master Workmen (essentially the Architects) would outline the work with charcoal or chalk. Sometimes the drawings would be copied onto scraps to be carried around the site for inspections. The copied off drawings were called "tracing boards". At some point the designs stopped being done on the floor and were drawn on boards specifically constructed for the purpose called "Trestleboards". So operative masons had the "Trestleboard" which was what the Master Workmen drew up the larger site plans and "Tracing Boards" for copies of the work to be done for the day.

To be honest the actual origins of the names and their uses are speculative at best based on the general usage that was known in the guilds in the early 1600s.

Today various Masonic jurisdictions use the terms "tracing board" and/or "trestleboard" in slightly different ways. Truly it is an odd bit of trivia that can be argued in circles for hours on end, to no real end. Especially since neither the origin nor correct usages can be proven historically on what is known today (tomorrow is a different matter all together). Honestly the "Tracing board" could easily have preceded the "Trestleboard" because lodges in Europe (which pre-date American lodges), use the word "Tracing Board".

Historically the trestleboard is entirely different from the tracing-board."Trestle" comes from an old Scotch word, "trest", meaning a supporting framework. Carpenters use trestles, or saw horses, to support boards to be sawed or planed. A board across two trestles provided a natural and easy way to display plans. Hence the name trestleboard; a board supported by trestles, on which plans were shown or made.

A tracing-board is a slate or tablet upon which sectional copies of a plan have been made for easy reference.

In American Masonic lodges today the trestleboard has been made a synonym for tracing board. Therefore, a Masonic Trestleboard is a design board for the Master Workman to draw his plans and designs upon to give the workmen an outline of the work to be performed. In current terminology it might called the blueprint.

The Trestleboard is one of the 3 Movable jewels of a speculative Masonic Lodge. Most lodges construct their trestleboard as a framework consisting of usually three vertical, slanted legs with one or more horizontal crosspieces on which to hang or display an item. These devices are available in any art store called "easels".

In Masonic mythology Hiram Abif's tracing board is believed to have been made of wood, covered with a coating of wax. Each day he would inspect the work done and draw new set of architectural designs and symbols into the wax to instruct his Master Masons of the work to be done next. At the end of the day, he would simply scrape off the wax and pour a new layer of hot wax onto the board to ready it for the next day's work.

In the 1700s Masonic lodges would meet out in the open on hills or valleys, or in secret caves. When a lodge met the Tyler would draw a rectangular outline on the ground to indicate the "lodge" and the officers would set up their stations according to the Master's Plan, thus continuing the tradition of drawing upon the tracing board (the marked oblong rectangle of the lodge). This tradition continued even when meeting in halls or taverns where the Tyler would mark the lodge area and locations with chalk or charcoal. This progressed to lodges using tarps (to speed up clean up), and then to rugs. Most lodges today still use special tarps or rugs for specific training.

Of course even later, these designs were placed onto a table. Then finally were hung onto an easel (aka trestleboard) much like a drawing board at a construction site where each workman could receive clear instruction as to what his specific participation entailed.

(Side note: it is speculated that the tracing board layout of the lodge being drawn on the ground is also the origin of why masons travel in right angles within the lodge and call learning to perform the rituals in the semi-military-like style "squaring the lodge" as a direct reference back to the oldest lodges ritual styles. After all if the members were to walk atop the markings made in the dirt on hill and vale; atop the chalk on the floor of the taverns; or tread upon and thus soil the cloths or rugs used to provide the workings of that degree, the message of that lecture which was being worked could be partially or fully destroyed. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that "Squaring the Lodge" refers back many centuries as the means of preserving the ritual and the degrees being worked so as not to destroy the symbolism of their markings before their usefulness on that day has been completed.)

In every Masonic Lodge near the Master’s is a table, stand, or pedestal on which he may lay his papers. I have heard that pedestal referred to as the trestleboard because upon it the Master draws the design for the meeting. We may all free to research, consider and draw our own conclusions for the interpretations of the symbols of Masonry; for many this interpretation may be enough. To me it seems to be a loss to not consider a much greater and nobler concept. "A light house is, indeed, a house with a light, but he who sees but the house and the light, but fails to visualize those lost ones who by it find their way; who cannot see the ships kept in safety by its ceaseless admonition that this way lies danger; who cannot behold it as a symbol as well as a structure, misses its beauty."

As with many Masonic symbols there are hints to a higher meaning. In the 1900s the Masonic Trestleboard of Speculative Masonry (as stated in the rituals) is to be found in "the great books of nature and revelation." Many Masonic scholars, including Mackey, consider that the Volume of the Sacred Law for the Lodge is the true Trestleboard. All of the curious furniture of the lodge are key pieces of the designs upon the trestleboard of Speculative Freemasonry. Within Masonic teachings, rituals, mythology, and symbolism the trestleboard must support the designs to guide the work upon that temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. More specifically the Masonic Trestleboard symbolically represents the mind within each person; it is the repository of all our designs for our lives. In this way the Trestleboard of Masonry requires the pursuit of knowledge, philosophy, wisdom and learning in order to receive its designs. Each Mason is expected to become a Master Mason and learn to draw his designs, ever inspecting the work as it is today and planning the next steps.

It seems to distract from the symbolic nature of the trestleboard when it is used by lodges as the name for the Lodge notices or newsletters. This seems reasonable at first glance, since it is the Master of the Lodge that draws the design for the coming work, and sends them out to the Craftsmen. This usage can diminish the true nature of the symbolism, unless of course, the Masters understand the symbolism and insure that the brethren are properly instructed. As such the brethren can all smile knowing that the inside secret play on words when they receive their lodge's "Trestleboard", knowing full well that it is simply meant to remind them of the work yet to be done.

Forget not that as a Mason your Trestleboard is the combination of all you have and will learn from nature, from your Book of Holy Scripture, and the designs in your own heart. It is worthy of many hours of pondering; a Masonic teaching to be loved and lived.