George F. Mason, the F standing for Fred his friendly name, has had one heck of a life. In his 80 years, he has really gotten around. Of course, it all started in Princeton, in the very house he calls home. It’s been the Mason place since it was built in 1804.
Fred mason remembers rustic, rural Princeton well. “You know, I helped build the road out there. I can remember helping motorists get unstuck when the rain made it a muddy mess. I got 50 cents for that.”
He also remembers that living in Princeton was pretty hard work. “My father was in the ice business, so I became the Princeton ice man, and lugging ice from Princeton to Hubbardston,” he recalls. It was such hard work, that he decided to head for New York to seek his fortune as an illustrator.
It wasn’t so much that Fred mason was lazy. It’s just that there wasn’t much call for an illustrator in Princeton. And, since that was what he did best, that is what he was bound and determined to do.
“I went to New York to be an illustrator. Of course, I was quite young and green. And, I just couldn’t get anywhere with it until I went to see Charles Livingston Bull, the dean of animal artists. He looked at my work and said I needed to know animal anatomy. He sent me down to the museum to learn it.”
The museum was the famous American Museum of natural History of New York City. Although, he fully intended to just learn anatomy, Fred Mason ended up working for the museum for the next 25 years.
He recalls that it was a good time to seek employment at the museum. “When I applied for the job, they were just beginning to establish teams to create diorama type exhibits. These dioramas recreated the environment of the animals and plant life found in various parts of the world,” he notes.
Mason became a preparatory. That meant he would work on a team constructing a diorama, duplicating nature by making replicas of trees, grass, the earth and by painting realistic backgrounds. “I remember taking the bark from a tree and pouring a cast of the insides, then reapplying the bark to make it look like the original tree.”
Over the years, he helped develop the many and diverse methods used in diorama art. “We started making leaves out of wax. Then, we used paper. Eventually, about the time I retired, we were using plastics.”
Although he started out as an “inside” man, doing the finishing work as assigned, it wasn’t long before he was going on the expeditions to collect materials and animals for these dioramas, “The museum established expedition teams. You specialized in a certain area of the world. My area was Alaska and Northern Canada. You got so you could live and work in the area. You knew your way around.”
These expeditions meant high adventure, in search of moose, bear, beaver and all manner of flora and fauna. “I would fly in with a taxidermist. We would collect the animal. We had to skin it and deflesh it so we could take back the bones. We also took back the tundra, dirt, grass, plants, rocks – we got it all, sometimes tons of it.” After they got it back to the museum, they put it all back together again. That was a diorama.
About 10 years later, Mason was promoted to associate curator of the museum’s Department of education. This move into management set the stage for another important facet of the Mason career.
Preparation was an artistic skill. Management forced me to use my head, but I liked it,” he recalls. Fred still managed to go on as many expeditions as he could, though. He “earned” them by working extra hours on special evening exhibits and shows put on at the museum. He was building the experiences that would enable Fred Mason, the author to emerge.
Mason says he owes his literary career to the bookstore manager at the museum. “One day, he yelled – ‘Hey Fred, you want to write a book?’ Well, I had never formally written anything, but I decided to give it a try, since there was a demand for it.”
His first book, written for children, was on the subject of animal tracks. It became so successful that the publisher created a series from it – all authored and illustrated by Fred mason. Incidentally, the book on tracks was actively in print for about 30 years – quite a track record!
Just as his timing was right in getting the job as a preparatory, the timing was right for down-to-earth children’s books on nature. “Up until this time, books on natural history were written by the scientists. They were so complicated no child could understand them. So, I wrote like I talked – simply. Since I was friendly with all the museum scientists, I would go and ask them questions. They would explain anything to me. That’s how I did my research. Then I would write about it.”
Eventually, there was a whole series of animal books. Fred authored about a dozen with such titles as “Animal Appetites,” Animal Habits,” “Animal Sounds,” and Animal Eyes.” Schools and librarians bought the books. The publishers didn’t really try to make them mass market books. But, they had mass appeal to the kids who read them. “I have tons of letters from children who read one of my books in school and had to write a letter to the author as a school assignment,” he says. Mason wrote more elaborate books for adults too. One of the most notable was “the Wildlife of America.” He also illustrated other author’s books.
Back in 1954, he took an early retirement from the museum to concentrate on freelance illustrating and writing. His work was in demand. “I never had to go out and sell my work. The publishers came to me,” he notes. All the wile, he was traveling, painting and collecting hundreds illustrations, most done for his own satisfaction.
Now that Fred Mason is back in Princeton, pretty much to stay, the hard work has started again. “I’m working harder than ever – chopping wood, splitting wood, taking care of the house,” he says with irony.
But, he is still writing and painting. And, the walls of his home testify to his well-traveled days. On the mantel is a rhino horn. On the walls are painted memories of expeditions past. And everywhere you look are mementos, objects and just plain things, from just about everywhere.
Like I said, Fred Mason has been around.
