‘The library of Alexandria’

     

Courtesy GWMNM

Not that Alexandria. This Alexandria!

Yes, there is good news from the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. It is announced in its latest newsletter how the digitization project was restarted last year. With its “more than 4,500 years of Masonic history” scanned, saved, and searchable, I suppose the Memorial is a modern Library of Alexandria—albeit with a specific focus.

I think it was about twelve years ago when Mark Tabbert, Director of Collections, announced the Memorial was to begin digitizing books of grand lodge proceedings. As of October, according to the anonymously written item in this newsletter, the effort thus far had 30 collections of grand lodges’, Royal Arch grand chapters’, Cryptic grand councils’, and Templar grand commanderies’ (plus Grand Encampment’s) archives as searchable data.

Where? Here.

In other high tech news, Shawn Eyer, Director of Communications and Development, recorded omnidirectional and three dimensional videos of the Memorial’s eleven public spaces. Sounds like sorcery to me, but take the tour—pandemic or no—here.

On the brick-and-mortar capital improvement side, the ongoing renovations have caught up to the windows in Memorial Hall.

Gone are the stained glass panels installed in the 1950s. Everybody loves stained glass, but that medium doesn’t really let there be light. Instead, the original architect’s vision of amber-color windows has been brought to fruition to shine golden rays upon Bryant Baker’s titan statue of Washington the Freemason. I bet it’s gorgeous.

I haven’t visited in ages. Hope to correct that soon.