‘MOVPER @ the GWMNM’

    

We who attended the Scottish Freemasonry in America Symposium last weekend at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia were given a tour of the museum and other spaces in the building. This edition of The Magpie Mason is a sidebar to the main coverage of that event because I can’t resist sharing some photos of the Grotto exhibit.

What’s the Grotto? Surely you jest! Formally known as the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, it is—as the name infers—the goofy side of Freemasonry in the United States. And elsewhere, actually. They’re establishing Grottoes in Mexico and other points south.

Anyway, here are my shots of the tidily curated MOVPER exhibit.

Nazir Grotto Marching Band uniform on loan from Bernard Mitchell,
Pasts Grand Monarch. Made by Drunkenbrod Tailors of Canton, Ohio, ca. 1940.

Great Mokanna costume, ca. 1960.
If you know, you know.

And, at Fredericksburg Lodge 4 in Fredericksburg: