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In the nineteenth century paraded banners were an important means by which friendly societies represented themselves to members, to prospective members and to supporters. These mutual aid organizations, which were principally designed to help people protect themselves against problems which arose due to the illness or death of a breadwinner, often decorated their banners with a representation of the Good Samaritan. The popularity of this choice can be understood in terms of Mauss's notion that communities are built on the cyclical exchange of both tangible and intangible 'gifts'. This preference indicates the importance that the societies attached to Jesus's parable, including his instruction, 'Go thou and do likewise', which made clear the obligation upon members to maintain a cycle of exchange within a Christian community. The iconic image could be used to support a notion of charity as Christian, reciprocal and male. It also served to mute internal divisions and encourage new membership as it could be read as evidence of sympathy for a diverse range of views about justice and alms, individual advance and social solidarity, equity and hierarchy, charity and fraternity, hospitality and surveillance, respect for authority and working men's aspirations for greater independence from their social superiors.

The importance of natural philosophy in Masonic rhetoric is illustrated and material from Masonic sources, lodge records and secondary works is used to demonstrate that scientific lectures were often delivered in some lodges. Other sources of inspiration for Freemasonry besides Newtonianism, such as antiquarianism are acknowledged.

Like many men of the late nineteenth century, James T. Mullen was a veteran of fraternity. In the Civil War, he fought alongside his Connecticut brethren in the 9th Connecticut […]

The interdenominational competition for membership in the late 19th century led to the creation of denominational insurance cooperatives, fraternal organizations and charities which added benefits to belonging to a particular denomination. The history of the rise of these church-related organizations and the competition for member donation dollars is examined.

The history of Peasant Mutual Aid Committees (PMACs) is presented, focusing on their assistance to Russian peasants during the New Economic Policy era. Topics include an analysis of historical literature regarding mutual aid societies, the role of PMACs in Russian society, and peasant committees' contributions to the rural cooperative movement.

This paper examines the development and spread, and the structure, function and evolution, of one particular set of fraternal association -- the corps de sapeurs-pompiers (fire-fighting brigades) in one French department (Loir-et-Cher) during the nineteenth century. From a mass of unpublished records is reconstructed the historical evolution and the geographical diffusion of brigades. An uneven pattern of brigade development in time and over space is analysed in relation to the stimuli promoting the formation of brigades, to their rules and practices, and to the social tensions and spatial problems of funding and recruitment which affected their evolution. Althought the State was involved at the outset in the creation of corps de sapeurs-pompiers, the role of fire brigades as fraternal associations dependent for their existence upon the goodwill of their individual members and upon a sense of solidarity is also demonstrated. Especially within remote rural communes, brigades were established and functioned in at least partial ignorance of the legal framework within which they were officially embedded. Gradually during the nineteenth century the State came to exercise a greater degree of control over fire brigades and their roles as voluntary associations was correspondingly reduced. The corps de sapeurs-pompiers were simultaneously fraternal associations and -- increasingly during the nineteenth century -- part of the extending apparatus of the State.

Most historians of the mid-nineteenth-century United States believed that fraternal organizations were peripheral to movements for emancipation, civil rights, and political equality. Several researchers use the methodologies of literary and cultural studies to explore the symbolic meanings of black men's engagement in Freemasonry.

Research describing the historical, social and political contexts which determined the construction of regulatory frameworks for British Friendly Societies is presented. It is emphasized that regulations for Friendly societies originate at the end of the eighteen century.

In conducting the affairs of the Order, women get business training that can be had in no other way. They learn the ways of handling money, and ordinary business forms, [...]

The UK Friendly Societies Act 1875 called for all friendly societies to have their accounts audited each year by a public auditor or two nominated people. But accountants were initially reluctant to take on the role of public auditors. Some friendly societies chose to employ accountants as their public auditors whilst others persisted in using unqualified auditors. The Building Societies Act 1894 called for one of the auditors to be an accountant and by 1920 all new public auditors had to be members of the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors.

A study traces the development of the mutual benefit societies (MBS) which affected the lives of almost half of the workers of Buenos Aires, most of them immigrants, at the time of the Centenario in 1910. However, the MBS are dismissed as insignificant in the history of the labor movement despite its pre-eminent role as the precursor of the labor movement. The study explores the MBS' role in social security and the rise of Peronist trade unionism in the mid-1940s.