‘Recap of the researchers conference’

    

I’m still catching up on What I Did on My Summer Vacation blogging and, since it’s been two months already, let me report on William O. Ware Lodge of Research’s long anticipated “Exploring the Role of Masonic Research Lodges in the 21st Century” conference in Lexington, Kentucky nine Saturdays ago. Produced with the assistance of Lexington Lodge 1, the Rubicon Masonic Society, the Philalethes Society, and others, this day of panel discussions addressed six topics that mostly were for consideration of the future of these peculiar lodges we love so much.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 was represented by Bro. Sal Corelli and myself. (He and I had been bumping into each other all summer, first at the Masonic Restoration Foundation in Ontario, then the John Skene Conference, and again in Kentucky.) I guess I was representing The American Lodge of Research and Civil War Lodge of Research also.

The banquet room.

The night before the conference, we gathered at Spindletop Hall for Rubicon’s Thirteenth Annual Festive Board. We guests were sad to hear how keynote speaker John L. Cooper, Past Grand Master of California, wouldn’t be joining us, but our hosts adroitly surrogated MW David Cameron of Ontario. He presented a most encouraging talk—a true story of his lodge’s efforts to prove the provenance of a cherished gavel gifted by Rudyard Kipling. I am kicking myself now because I didn’t take notes. Seating was crowded in the banquet room and I wasn’t planning on continuing all this blogging, so I ruled against pressing my notebook into my salad and elbowing my unlucky neighbor to the right while jotting down details. Nor did I shoot photos.

MW David Cameron

From what I can recall, Bro. David’s lodge possesses a gavel that, according to lore, was presented by the eminent author during the 1930s. It’s not that there were skeptics rejecting the tale, but the story was so lacking in details that current lodge brothers wondered about its accuracy. Fortunately, the lodge archives its books of minutes, correspondence, and other records that excite research Masons, so into the vault the seekers went. These records were not organized systematically, so finding the meeting minutes that noted receipt of the gift took time. Also, not a lot of information in that but, equipped with a date, the researchers dived into the lodge’s ancient mail to hunt for a letter that might explain what happened. In the end, notes to Kipling and, later, from his widow provided the facts behind how our historic brother sent the gavel to this lodge. (This is blogging malpractice. The story related that night was pregnant with particulars and was revealed with building suspense. I apologize for not having more to share, but the memory fails.)

The Festive Board was enthralling. Not everyone knows how to do this but, believe me, if every lodge hosted a monthly Festive Board of this excellence, any worries of membership retention would dissolve. Great food, the toasts, the Good Fire ritual, the songs, the fellowship, prayer, the chain of union are ingredients of a cheerful time together that only can inspire more time together.

Rubicon Masonic Society

The following morning, back at Spindletop Hall, was the conference. To ease everybody into the forward-leaning subjects, Bro. S. Brent Morris led the first talk, “The Historical Role of Research Lodges & Societies: Lessons from the Past.” It was a comprehensive review. Since you are reading this, I trust you have some knowledge of the history and purposes of research lodges—how Quatuor Coronati 2076 in London was the first and was devoted to debunking the myths and legends that long had passed for Craft history, followed by a few others in England and Ireland, and then several in the United States in the 1930s. The newest, I assume, is Virginia’s Blue Ridge Lodge of Research 1738, set to labor several months ago. I’ll omit all that chronology and instead highlight something he said about some of our earliest literature being expressions of historiography. We’ve all read Rev. James Anderson’s take on Masonic history in his 1723 book The Constitutions of the Free-Masons, and probably all scratched our heads wondering how anyone could begin Freemasonry’s story with Adam, the first man, but that, after all, is one understanding of our history, demonstrating a desire for insights into our past at the start of the grand lodge era.

Session Two brought Bro. David L. Daugherty to the lectern to discuss “Bridging the Gap: Connecting Research Lodges with Regular Lodges.” Daugherty, of Ohio Lodge of Research, wanted us to understand how research is not necessarily education. The former, he says, concerns gaining understanding, and the latter is about sharing. (New Jersey’s lodge is named Lodge of Masonic Research and Education.) Do research lodges have a responsibility to build fundamental understandings for all Masons? He noted how some research lodges have warrants that allow them to travel about their jurisdictions. Audience member Bro. James Buckhorn of Indiana said his grand lodge gives new Master Masons a year’s free membership in their lodge of research. (Something other research lodges should emulate?) “We need to become better educators,” Daugherty said in encouragement. Perhaps that will guarantee the future of research lodges and grand lodges.

MW David Cameron of Ontario.

Bro. David Cameron, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, moderated the next discussion on “Modernizing Masonic Research: Embracing Technology and Digital Tools.” Tech is not my thing, to put it simply, so I was relieved to hear the talk was in language I understood. Cameron urged us all to spend the necessary funds to digitize our research and make it available on the web. Bro. Buckhorn reminded us that digital data are not the ultimate answer some may think, because data can be saved with technologies that inevitably will become obsolete, therefore inventorying physical documents is a must. The platform TeamReach was praised. Bro. Adam Kendall, the new Senior Warden at QC2076, summarized Artificial Intelligence thusly: “A.I. is a shrimp trawler. It scoops from the bottom of the ocean.” Take heed.

For Session Four, Bro. Rich Hanson led us in conversation of “Relevance in the 21st Century: Addressing Contemporary Issues Through Masonic Research.” This was one I dreaded somewhat, having seen “researchers” cherry-pick Masonic historical notes to vindicate their personal politics. (By contrast, when I delve into our past, I’m not above smoking a clay pipe while wearing a yellow jacket and blue breeches.) But my fear was unfounded. Hanson spoke of research lodges as places for sociology where our work might find alignment with today’s issues outside the temple. The goal would be to gain understanding of young people so that Freemasonry might serve the next generation, rather than allow a demographic fate run its course.

Rubicon Masonic Society

Bro. Adam Kendall of QC2076, Philalethes, SRRS, etc. fame.

Next, Bro. Kendall had his own subject to moderate: “The Art of Masonic Research: Developing and Sharing High Quality Work.” Adam should know. As editor of Heredom, a Blue Friar, an author of masterpiece papers, president of Philalethes, and an Honorary Member of Rubicon, he spoke firmly of best practices in conducting research and in writing and presenting research. Objective quality-control, passion, and the “Five C’s of Historical Thinking”—Causality, Change Over Time, Complexity, Context, and Contingency—are secrets to good work, square work.

Bro. Andrew Hammer

Closing the day was Bro. Andrew Hammer, certainly best known as president of the Masonic Restoration Foundation, who presented “The Future of Masonic Research Lodges: A Call to Action.” This was less a group discussion and more of Andrew exploring a tangent to his Observant model of lodge life. He urged everyone to bring our talents and works back to the Craft lodge, that birthplace and nexus of everything Masonic. “Our ritual and the learning that goes along with it—if you break them apart, you break Masonry apart,” he said, recalling to our minds how William Preston authored the text in the 1770s that shaped Masonic thinking as we have it today.

After the conference, the Magpie Mason was invited to dine at the Lexington Club. Feeling like a pair of wet Chuck Taylors at a white tie affair, I nevertheless enjoyed an outstanding meal and conversation with the principals of the Rubicon Society and stars of the conference.

My deep thanks to Bro. John Bizzack, Master of W.O.W.; to Bro. Dan Kemble, the lodge’s Chaplain; to Rubicon Chairman Brian Evans; and to all who made the amazing weekend possible.

Finally, for more on the conference from its participants, just click the image at top. Also, a census of Masonic research lodge Masons is available for your consideration. I’m one of the team that’ll crunch the data, so please participate here.

Our hotel was across from The Square, a city block
of retail, dining, entertainment and more.

     

‘Heredom update’

    

Scottish Rite Research Society

Not part only, but the whole of life is a school. There never comes a time, even amidst the decays of age, when it is fit to lay aside the eagerness of acquisition, or the cheerfulness of endeavor.

 

Albert Pike

Morals and Dogma

Sublime Elect of the Twelve

Yes, we have an update from Editor Adam Kendall on the production schedule of the Scottish Rite Research Society’s upcoming books. To wit:

Heredom Vol. 32 is at the printer, to be sent to all members starting October.

Bonus Item: Chronology of the Supreme Council is at the printer.

2025 Bonus Item: Funerals of the AASR (including Rose Croix) is in layout and we hope to get that out by end of year.

2026 Bonus Item: 11 Gentlemen from Charleston is in layout and will be sent to the printer after Funerals.

We aim to provide you with the very best in thought provoking and informative material. Thank you very much for your patience and support!

Scottish Rite Research Society

Contents of Heredom 32.

     

‘Lookit this line-up of speakers!’

    

Registration is open now for the Midwest Conference on Masonic Education, this time in Indianapolis May 2-4. UPDATE: The conference says “Early Bird” ticket pricing is extended to March 8. These are the speakers waiting for you in the majestic Indianapolis Masonic Temple:

• Dr. Heather K. Calloway, Executive Director of University Collections at Indiana University

• Bro. Daniel Gardiner, Past Master of Helena Lodge 10 and Idaho Lodge 1

• Bro. Adam Kendall, Editor of Heredom (Scottish Rite Research Society) and President of the Philalethes Society

• Bro. Chris Hodapp, Masonic author

On Friday night, a special once in a lifetime program is planned featuring Hodapp and Brent Morris.

What is the MCME? From the publicity:

This conference is comprised of the grand jurisdictions in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas. The conference was formed in 1949 at a gathering of interested Masons from Illinois and Iowa. The outcome was to continue getting together by establishing its first annual meeting which was held in December 1950 in Cedar Rapids.

The organization is comprised of a loose and ever-changing collection of Masonic educators from grand lodges in twelve north-central states and the Province of Manitoba. Other participants frequently include chairs of Masonic education as well as grand lodge officers. Their aim is to promote Masonic education, in part, by providing a forum for educators to gather, freely discuss Masonic issues, socialize, and learn from sharing experiences while building beneficial relationships.

In addition, the conference initiates special projects, such as collecting data on educational practices across all North American jurisdictions, as well as encouraging Masonic research and writing by individual educators.

The conference meets once a year, usually in late April or early May, in one of the member jurisdictions. Responsibility for conducting the annual meeting rotates, eventually being hosted by all member jurisdictions before repeating. A typical program schedule includes presentations by well-known Masonic speakers, experiential as well as scholarly participant presentations, roundtable discussions, and jurisdiction reports. Sufficient time is also arranged to provide informal chats among attendees.

For more than a half century, our participants have expressed the view that our conference is well worth the time, effort, and cost in order to gain the many benefits from attending and participating.

Maybe somebody (not me) here in the Northeast could arrange something similar?

     

‘News from the Philalethes Society’

    

Great news from the Philalethes Society during Masonic Week:

✓ Adam Kendall is President for the two-year term.

✓ Chris Ruli is the new Third Vice-President.

✓ Michael Poll, made a Fellow in 2003, has been chosen Dean of the Fellows of the Society.

Steve McCall, owner of Macoy Masonic Supply Co., was the keynote speaker at the luncheon yesterday, discussing the history of his company in “175 Years of Serving the Craft: Publishing, Regalia, and Masonic Supplies.”

The Philalethes Society was founded in 1928 to serve as a nexus for serious thinking and a source for real scholarship on Masonic subjects. Grand lodges were not places to find research and education, so brethren motivated to fill that void organized independent bodies to publish enlightening papers and articles for the fraternity’s advancement in Masonic knowledge. The Philalethes Society was neither the first nor the only such group from that era, but it is the one still breathing at the close of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.

Congratulations all!

Okay, okay. I’ll rejoin. Stop browbeating me.

(Hey guys, how about updating the website, yeah?)

I wonder if I can revive Knickerbocker Chapter.

     

‘From the Attic of the Grand Lodge’

     

From the Attic

of the Grand Lodge

No, that’s not a horror movie. It’s the theme of the 2023 International Conference on Freemasonry!

That’s next April in California. From the publicity:

We’ve all had the experience—or at least dreamed of it—of crawling through the attic or the basement and discovering a hidden treasure. For many California Masons, whose lodges have histories going back to the founding of the state, that Antiques Roadshow fantasy isn’t a fantasy at all. From centuries-old aprons and officers’ jewels, to paintings, ornaments, and documents, Masonic lodges can be a treasure trove of curiosities. But what are we supposed to do with this stuff?

That’s the question at the heart of the 11th International Conference on Freemasonry, taking place April 8, 2023 at the University of California-Los Angeles. The annual event, presented by the Grand Lodge of California, is an exploration of the vast collection of material culture—the technical term for that “stuff.” What should lodges do with it? How do we know what’s valuable and what isn’t? And how do these items, from Bibles to regalia to aides de memoire, help tell the larger story of Freemasonry?

The presenters:

Dr. Mark Dennis on “The Material Culture of Freemasonry: Not a Thing Apart from the World.”

Leigh Ann Gardner on “Obeyed the Last Summons and Entered the Grand Lodge Above: Fraternal Cemeteries as Material Culture.”

Adam Kendall on “Listening to the Secret and Silent.”

Dr. Aimee Newell on “Expressing Brotherhood and Nationhood Through Symbols: Masonic Material Culture in the United States.”

Read all about it here.

     

‘Masonic Week 2022’

    

I meant to post this a week ago, but it’s been busy and, frankly, social media renders Magpie coverage of Masonic Week redundant. I mean, during last Saturday’s AMD Grand Council Annual Communication, Barry was tweeting and I was Faceypaging progress of the meeting in real time. And then came tons of everyone’s photos. So this edition of The Magpie Mason is brief—I attended only several events anyway—and it is light on photography. There were No Photography signs posted around the meeting room but, unknown to me, they referred to the degree conferrals and not to the business meetings. So I inadvertently denied you my customary lens work, capturing the scenes of the same ten guys appointing each other to the officer lines.

My first Masonic Week (called AMD Weekend back then) was 2002, and this weekend, like that one, was blessed with unseasonably warm weather for the dead of winter. I wistfully recall sitting at the bar in the Hotel Washington’s lobby, enjoying a pint and a cigar, writing postcards to the brethren back at lodge, and noticing the tourists outside were wearing shorts and T-shirts. The temperature reached as high as 61 degrees this time. But no smoking anything anywhere in any hotel these days, just to illustrate how far our society has collapsed in only two decades.

I reminisced with Rashied for a few minutes about those old times and about all the friends who we don’t see anymore. Janet, who organized the annual luncheon at Old Ebbitt Grill; Scott, who played his bagpipes; and so many more Masonic Light members, some who have passed on, or no longer make the trip.

Heather Calloway was there, allegedly. I’m told she was representing Indiana University’s Center for Fraternal Collections and Research, supposedly. I’m doubtful because I staggered around the atrium, where stood everybody’s display tables, repeatedly, but didn’t see her. I probably need some kind of cognitive testing.

I didn’t even get a chance to shake Mark Tabbert’s hand. Just a fast wave. Mark’s book, A Deserving Brother, is due out this month. But I did get to meet Scott Schwartzberg after all these years.

It was a great Masonic Week thanks, in part, to the absence of a few of the usual groups that still were skittish over the pandemic. No offense, but without Athelstan and Knight Templar Priests, there was room on the schedule for degree work open to AMD brethren. What a concept.

The Masonic Society

Attendance this Masonic Week reached an all time high (at least as records and memories go), with about 430 registered. So it was exciting to see a record high 112 signed up for the anchor event of the weekend: the Masonic Society’s annual dinner. Because the pandemic pre-empted last year’s Masonic Week, this was our thirteenth, instead of fourteenth, meeting, and it felt good to be back.

Having been awake for twenty-two hours by the time we entered the banquet room, an endodontic job, sans anesthesia, would have been fine by me, but this was a true pleasure and a high note on which to conclude my term as president.

The new leadership team:

President Oscar Alleyne

First Vice President Greg Knott

Second Vice President Mark Robbins

Our seven-member Board of Directors has been reorganized with Mark joining the officers and John Bizzack retiring (he’s a new VP at Philalethes now). We have added Kevin Wardally of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, and Mason Russell of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Coincidentally, both are grand treasurers of their respective grand lodges.

And I also had the honor of announcing two new Masonic Society Fellows: William Maurer and Michael Moran. Bill has been published in the pages of The Journal of the Masonic Society, is a valued historian of early America, and is a long-serving trustee of the Livingston Library here in New York. Mike is the book reviews editor of The Journal. He also is central to Masonic education at home in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. We’re lucky to have so much talent in the family.

After a savory meal of roast beef and winter vegetables, it was time for our speaker. Chris Ruli was the grand historian and librarian of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia (on sabbatical now to work on another project) who has been studying Freemasonry’s historic activities in the Federal City for many years. He presented us “Masonic Myth of Our Nation’s Capital,” a discussion of some of his research that is intended to dispel the frivolous tales we sometimes hear about the Craft’s role in building Washington, D.C.

Chris told us of the persons, places, and things involved in how the District took shape with Masons participating, from the placement of the Boundary Stones that marked the city’s borders in 1791, to the construction of the Executive Mansion in 1792, to the cornerstone ceremony at the Capitol in 1793, with a lot more around town and into the next century too, including recovery from the arson of the War of 1812, and up to the Lincoln years. (I resisted the temptation to say that very day, February 11, was the anniversary of the start of the surveying process in 1791 that established the District’s boundaries.)

He exhibited not only command of his subject, but also command of his audience. You had to see it! I’m not enthusiastic about video recording our doings, but I’m sorry we didn’t preserve this lecture. It was a performance, and it was praised throughout the weekend at the hotel and for days after on social media. Chris has an uncommon gift for oratory, engaging listeners with humor to make a fascinating story doubly memorable. Not having the speaking skill or that confidence myself, I am really impressed and am in agreement with all who said this was one of the top Masonic talks I’ve seen.

The Q&A took us beyond the hour we were entitled to have the room, so we broke it up reluctantly. I really had to get some sleep anyway. But before our Friday night dinner, I attended the Blue Friars and the Nine Muses.

The Society

of Blue Friars

The Society of Blue Friars is a small Masonic institution that honors authors with membership in its select ranks. This year Adam Kendall of California became Blue Friar 111. He is a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 and is editor of The Plumbline. Adam presented his “The Scandals and Secret Rites of Benjamin Hyam,” found in QC2076’s Freemasonry on the Frontier anthology. It’s a story as wild as the Wild West and as confounding as any you’ll find in Masonic history.

Adam, Balvin, and David.

I encourage you to seek the several videos on YouTube of Adam’s previous tellings of the tale.

Council of Nine Muses 13

Then, at the meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees’ Council of Nine Muses 13, James Winzenreid of West Virginia was seated, becoming both the fiftieth member in the elite council’s history and the warm body needed that afternoon to achieve a quorum. He succeeds Tom Jackson of Pennsylvania who died last year.

Tom’s death added another dimension to Masonic Week; he was eulogized repeatedly and extensively in multiple meetings. To hear different summations of his eighty-seven years is to wonder where one’s own life is going. His too numerous feats in Freemasonry comprise only a subplot in a life that couldn’t have been more productive without elongating the weeks and adding more months. Successes followed successes in his personal, professional, academic, and civic lives. Did you know he was a weightlifting champion as a young man in his early twenties?

Grand College of Rites

After about ten hours of deep sleep, it was time for the Grand College of Rites. I haven’t attended one of our meetings in several years, mostly because of repeated schedule changes. I think Saturday morning is a good time for it.

A lot of news from this meeting. Our new Grand Chancellor is David Kussman of California. If the name rings a bell, he is the Knight Templar who was illegally removed from his elected office as deputy grand master of the KT Grand Encampment by the grand master of the Grand Encampment—and is that guy gonna get his comeuppance next month! Read the Dummies blog for that story.

Joining the officer line as the grand seneschal is Clyde Schoolfield of Oklahoma. Clyde is grand secretary of the AMD. Jerry Klein retired as our grand registrar, and has been succeeded by Christopher Gamblin of Indiana. Duane Vaught exited the grand chancellor’s chair and took over as grand treasurer.

Arturo de Hoyos, grand archivist, was absent, tending to family needs, so there was no report on the upcoming edition of Collectanea, but we know it will be a continuation of the 1807 Cerneau Scottish Rite rituals. In the meantime, however, a bonus Collectanea has been mailed to the membership. Forget what I said about the Masonic Book Club possibly publishing Burlesque Degrees. The text of humorous, if hokey, rituals from the Golden Age of Fraternalism now is among the GCR bibliography.

Ark and Dove Degree

Somewhere in the weekend I, and maybe about a hundred others, received the Ark and Dove Degree. I have to hit the books and learn about this one; I’m not sure I’ve even heard of it before. From its name you’d connect it with Royal Ark Mariner, but it is different. Whether it’s derivative of, or adjunct to, R.A.M. I don’t know. It imparts a lesson in temperance, particularly with food and drink. I can’t decide if that message is ironic for Masonic Week, or if it is especially needed there, but it is a thoughtful brief degree. The ritualists performed well, and it was appreciatively received.

(You ever notice the word “peradventure” is used in a couple of our degrees?)

Grand Council

of Allied Masonic Degrees

And speaking of the AMD, Grand Master Mohamad Yatim enjoyed a dynamic year in office. The poor man was installed in quarantine conditions and via Zoom last February, but that humble start sparked a ceaseless tornado of activity that improved AMD at home and was felt abroad from the Philippines to the Congo. The accomplishments literally are too numerous to list here, so I’ll have to refer AMD members to the first four issues of the Allied Times newsletter. I will point out though how Prince Hall brethren now are able to be invited into AMD councils.

The Marvin E. Fowler Award was presented to Moises Gomez in thanks for his expert stewardship of the planning and execution of Masonic Week each year. To be clear, there is a committee. Its members get us attendees signed in, paid up, credentialed, inspected, injected, detected, and rejected—but it is Moises who is the omnipresent force in the hotel before we arrive, while we run amok, and after we’re gone. He checks the meetings to ensure the hotel is performing correctly. He provides his personal equipment so Chris Ruli can screen his slides during his presentation. He visits the brother who became ill and needed to be hospitalized. Moises is the Indispensable Man.

Aaron Shoemaker of Missouri is our new grand master. I think it’s reasonable to expect a similarly productive year for him. One of his first acts was to make Moises the grand superintendent for New Jersey.

So this, the 130th Annual Communication of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees, was the final meeting of the last Masonic Week I plan to attend, and even I was part of the ceremonies. My thanks to Mohamad for recognizing my work on the newsletter with a handsome plaque. Editing Allied Times last year was the least I could do—and let it never be said I don’t do the least I can do!

     

‘Esotericism and Masonic Connections’

     

The Ninth International Conference of Freemasonry is scheduled for Saturday, April 10.

The day-long affair will begin at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Titled “Hidden Meanings: Esotericism and Masonic Connections,” it will be a webcast bringing together top scholars you’ve been following for many years.

Register here.

Ric Berman, John Cooper, Shawn Eyer, Adam Kendall, and Will Moore will be among the presenters—and there’ll be more heavy hitters during those eight hours.

     

‘33 & Beyond’

     

I have seen 33 & Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry, and it is good.

I finally had chance to watch Johnny Royal’s 2017 film love letter to the fraternity yesterday and, while I won’t write a review, I recommend it.

The movie runs 90 minutes. With numerous interviews and footage of various untiled Masonic persons, places, and things, it relates philosophical interpretations of the degrees of Craft Masonry, the A&ASR-SJ major degrees, and the York Rite too.

In the interviews, we hear from young and not so young, and from famous and not yet famous brethren. Most, I think, are Californians, including Kendall, Cooper, and Doan; and there are Oklahomans Bob Davis (now Grand Master) and the late Jim Tresner, both of whom, unsurprisingly, are indispensable.

Conspicuously missing are any New Yorkers—the closest we get is a three-second clip of a homeless guy on MacDougal Street—but I guess you can’t have everything.

Watch it on Prime Video or Xumo. And stay through the end credits for a funny coda.

     

‘New Jersey’s Masonic lodges’

      

Lots of great news coming out of the weekend.

Research lodge’s

festive board

First, mark your calendars for Saturday, November 30 for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786’s Festive Board at Cranbury Inn. That’s the Feast Day of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scottish Freemasonry. Details are still being worked out, but 65 guests are welcome at $40 each, payable in advance. I’ll have more info soon and will post it on the Magpie.

A brother’s book

to be published

A relatively new Master Mason, Bro. Erich Huhn, will have a book published next month. New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges is due out October 28 from Arcadia Publishing. This is one of those 128-page paperbacks filled entirely with archival photographs that Arcadia prints. $21.99, available for preorder. From the publicity:

Across New Jersey, thousands of men have entered through the doors of Masonic Lodge buildings, also known as “temples,” over the fraternity’s more than 250-year history in the Garden State. These buildings, from humble meeting spaces to elaborate single-purpose centers, stand tribute to the memory and influence of one of the oldest fraternities in the world, founded on the tenets of faith, hope, and charity. From governors and U.S. Supreme Court justices, to carpenters and stonemasons, Freemasonry has welcomed men from all walks of life, and the temples they built have played important roles in the civic, social, and charitable life of many towns. Although some lodges have been lost, many still remain and are presented here for the first time through photographs and images collected from various historical societies, museums, libraries, and Masonic organizations. This book attempts not to serve as an encyclopedic source but rather to catalog and organize the development of the Masonic temples in New Jersey.

Erich Morgan Huhn is a historian of Freemasonry and fraternalism and a member of Cincinnati Lodge 3 in Morristown. He has degrees from Rider University and Seton Hall University. His work focuses on demographics and social history, with a concentration on the Freemasons and fraternities of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Adam, Ryan,

and Yasser to speak

I haven’t seen any of these outstanding Masons in years, especially Adam, and it’ll be good to shake their hands again.

Admission is free. This flier says it all. See you there.

Click to enlarge.

     

‘Masonic Knowledge on March 17’

     
Don’t forget the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge next month. I’m going. Ric Berman and Adam Kendall will be the presenters at the spring session. I haven’t seen Ric in two years, and I cannot even remember the last time I met up with Adam. From the publicity:

Pennsylvania Academy

of Masonic Knowledge

Saturday, March 17 at 9:30 a.m.

Freemasons Cultural Center

Masonic Village

1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown

Register here

Bro. Richard (Ric) Berman was the 2016 Prestonian Lecturer of the United Grand Lodge of England. Berman is the author of Foundations of Modern Freemasonry now in its second edition; Schism, which examines the conflict between the Moderns and Antients; Loyalists & Malcontents, a history of colonial Freemasonry in the American Deep South; and Espionage, Diplomacy & the Lodge. Bro. Berman, a Freemason for forty years, holds Senior London and Provincial Grand Rank. He is a Past Master of the Marquis of Dalhousie Lodge 1159 (EC); Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 (EC), England’s premier research lodge; and a PM of the Temple of Athene Lodge 9541 (EC), the research lodge of the Province of Middlesex.

Foundations: New Light

on the Formation and Early Years

of the Grand Lodge of England

2016 Prestonian Lecture

The lecture explores the evolution of Freemasonry, queries long-standing myths, and explains the step change that occurred with the creation of the first Grand Lodge of England in 1717. Ric outlines the connections between Freemasonry and the British establishment in the eighteenth century, and how and why its leaders positioned Grand Lodge as a bastion of support for the government.


Bro. Adam G. Kendall is the editor of The Plumbline for the Scottish Rite Research Society and a member of its governing board. He is a Past President of the Masonic Library & Museum Association, and the former Collections Manager and Curator of Exhibits for the Henry W. Coil Library and Museum at the Grand Lodge of California.

For more than a decade, he has presented at several international symposia—most notably, the World Conference on Freemasonry & Fraternalism at the National Library of France; the British Association for American Studies at Exeter University (BAAS); the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry (ICHF) in Edinburgh; the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH); The Quarry Project, University of California Los Angeles; and the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts. In addition to his public presentations, documentaries, and exhibits, he has published several essays and reviews in notable publications such as the European Journal of American Culture, Western Museums Association, The Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, The Journal of the Philalethes Society, Heredom, and Ahiman: A Review of Masonic Culture and Tradition.

Bro. Kendall is a Past Master of Phoenix Lodge 144 in San Francisco, and a full member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London.

The Geometry of Mystery:

Ancient Egypt, Freemasonry,

and Secret Societies

The opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 set off a world-wide craze for all things Egyptian-inspired, but it was by no means the first wave of “Egyptomania.” Ancient Egypt has been a land of mystery and wonder for the West for three thousand years. It has influenced art, architecture, mathematics, literature, and religion. This presentation is an examination of the real and imaged cultural legacy of Ancient Egypt, the history of the romanticism of this venerable civilization, and how its powerfully influential tradition of exotic and esoteric wisdom claimed by secret societies and mystical fraternities is only loosely based upon historical reality.

Please recognize that a cost is incurred to the program for your registration. If you pre-register and subsequently determine that you will be unable to attend, please have the Masonic courtesy to cancel your reservation by the same method and providing the same information.

Registration will open at 8:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 9:30 a.m.

A lunch (requested contribution of $10) will be served at noon, and the program will be completed by 3 p.m. All Masons are welcome to attend. Dress is coat and tie.
     

‘Tuesday morning news’

     
Magpie coverage of the stellar lecture on Plato’s Divided Line at the School of Practical Philosophy Saturday night is still to come, but in the meantime I just want to throw out some news briefs from the past few days.

First up, let’s all congratulate Adam Kendall on his election to membership in Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076! Amazing! (This isn’t the Correspondence Circle. This is the actual lodge—“the premiere lodge of Masonic research in the world,” etc., etc.)

I bet he doesn’t even read The Magpie Mason anymore, but that’s okay. Once you attain such exalted heights, everything changes. So I am told.

Courtesy @davisshaver

‘The Bond’

On Saturday, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania unveiled a pair of bronze statues of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin on the sidewalk outside its headquarters Masonic Temple in Philadelphia. Named “The Bond,” they depict Washington showing his Masonic apron, that he received as a gift from Lafayette, to Franklin. The actual apron is exhibited inside the building, in the museum. The statues themselves are a gift from Shekinah-Fernwood Lodge 246, which meets in the Temple. They are the creation of James West. Check out his most impressive website here.

Courtesy Ashmolean Museum

Sunday night I wrote a short essay on the early history of Freemasonry that might be published somewhere, and I included not only the inevitable mention of Elias Ashmole and his initiation into the fraternity in 1646, but also mentioned his bequest that created Oxford University’s museum of art and archaeology, the Ashmolean. And just by coincidence, today is the anniversary of its opening day in 1683. It is the first university museum. Happy anniversary!


I have been writing here about Henry David Thoreau several times of late in this bicentennial year of his birth. Last Friday, the Morgan Library and Museum—a stunning place to visit—opened its exhibition “This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal.” This collection of unpublished writings dwarfs his published work in volume, and gives far more insight into Thoreau the man. More than 100 items have been assembled for this exhibit. It will close September 10. Click here.


Next week, on Thursday the 15th, the Spiridon Arkouzis Lecture Series in Masonic Studies will continue with Iván Boluarte being hosted by the Tenth Manhattan District to present “Pre-Columbian Builders.” Seven o’clock at Masonic Hall in 1530. Photo ID to enter the building, etc.


And finally, and returning to the School of Practical Philosophy (12 East 79th Street), it is having a book sale, and some recordings have been added to the inventory on sale. From the publicity:

Courtesy School of Practical Philosophy

JUST ADDED: Select recorded-lecture titles on sale at a 20 percent discount in our wonderful Get Ready for Summer Sale.

Plan ahead and stock up to make your summer an enlightening and enjoyable break. Consider books and CDs as treasured gifts to pass on to friends and family.

During this event, a large portion of our inventory is sale priced at a 20 percent discount and recorded lectures have just been added. Subject areas included: scripture, philosophy, history, language, government, literature, and economics.

Discounted titles will be sold as long as inventory remains, but we suggest you make your choices early since availability may be limited.

Note: Items cannot be put on hold or reserved by anyone for purchase. Sale applies only to the Bookstore in our New York City location.
     

‘Setting out for the Masonic frontier’

     
The deadline for registration is near for The Masonic Society’s “Freemasonry on the Frontier” conference in California in three weeks. From the publicity:

The Masonic Society Announces

Speakers for ‘Frontier’ Conference

The Masonic Society has announced the line-up of nine speakers for its conference “Freemasonry on the Frontier” to be held October 7-9 in Morgan Hill, California. A registration form and hotel information can be found here.

“We’ve built the event around a particularly distinguished slate of speakers,” said Society President Kenneth W. Davis. “When possible, we’ve arranged topics chronologically and geographically, tracing the growth of Freemasonry from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.”

Samuel Clemens, better known as “Mark Twain,” will kick off the program with an after-dinner speech Friday evening. Brother Clemens’ talk is made possible by Jefferson H. Jordan, Jr., immediate past grand master of Masons in New Mexico.

Mark Tabbert, director of collections at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, and author of several acclaimed Masonic books, will deliver Saturday morning’s keynote address. His topic will be “George Washington and the Masonic Frontiers of the 1700s.”

Also on Saturday morning, William Miklos, past master of Northern California Research Lodge, will speak on “Masons Pushing or Pulling the Constitutional Convention,” and Moises Gomez, past grand historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, will speak on “Early Traveling Lodges of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey: Bringing Light to the American Frontier.”

Adam Kendall, collections manager and curator of exhibits for the Henry W. Coil Library and Museum at the Grand Lodge of California, and editor of The Plumbline, the quarterly bulletin of the Scottish Rite Research Society, will keynote the Saturday afternoon sessions, speaking on “Pilgrimage and Procession: The 1883 Knights Templar Triennial Conclave and the Dream of the American West.”

Also speaking Saturday afternoon will be Kyle Grafstrom, of Verity Lodge 59, Kent, Washington, and author of articles in both The Philalethes and Living Stones, on “Freemasonry in the Wild West.” Wayne Sirmon, past master of Texas Lodge of Research and instructor and fellow at the University of Mobile, will present “West by Southwest: The Expansion of Frontier Freemasonry in the Old Southwest.”

John Bizzack, fellow and board member of The Masonic Society, fellow of the Rubicon Masonic Society in Kentucky, and author of five books on Freemasonry, will deliver Saturday evening’s after-dinner speech, “The Expansion of Freemasonry into the West: The Pivotal Role of Kentucky, 1788-1810.”

John Cooper, past grand master and past grand secretary of Masons in California and current president of the Philalethes Society, will keynote Sunday morning with “Freemasonry and Nation-Building on the Pacific Coast: The California Experience.” His speech will be followed by a panel of all speakers, discussing with the audience “Freemasonry on the Frontier.”

Sunday afternoon will feature a tour of the Winchester Mystery House, with Masonic connections, and said to be haunted.

The conference is directed by Gregg Hall, member of Morgan Hill Masonic Lodge, California, and The Masonic Society’s board of directors.