‘MLMA day in Trenton & Philly’

    

Most of the gang at the MLMA annual meeting last month at the Trenton Masonic Temple in New Jersey, home state of outgoing President Glenn Visscher, front right.

So I’d better get started recapping the great Masonic weekends I’ve enjoyed recently. I’m going to start in the middle with the annual meeting of the Masonic Library and Museum Association on Saturday, September 6, which spanned two states.

I missed the Friday night dinner, but arrived at the Hilton in Jersey on Saturday morning to find the group in great spirits and ready for a long day of work and play. There are two news items that merit sharing here.

1. The peaceful transfer of power was completed during the meeting, and the MLMA leadership for the next two years is comprised of President Dirk Hughes, of the Michigan Masonic Museum and Library; Vice President Julia Wells, of the Iowa Masonic Library & Museum; Tyler Vanice, from the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, remains as Secretary; and Eric Trosdahl, of St. Paul Lodge Number Three in Minnesota, is setting a record for longevity as our Treasurer.

2. Future annual meetings of the association are scheduled.

2026: Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of the Grand Lodge of New York, in New York City.

2027: Masonic Library & Museum of the Grand Lodge of Washington, in Washington State.

2028: Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, in Lexington, Massachusetts.

2029: Saint Paul Lodge Number Three in Minnesota.

Our meeting last month was hosted by the Trenton Masonic Temple in Trenton, New Jersey, home of the Museum of Masonic Culture which has been curated by outgoing MLMA President Glenn Visscher and his family since, I think, the 1990s. Then we rode the Shriners’ “trolley” to the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia for a tour of the building, including its Library & Museum, all arranged by Moises Gomez. Having been to the Philly temple often and recently, I didn’t shoot many photos, so what follows is a selection from the Trenton temple, its museum, and one lodge room.

New President Dirk Hughes, at right, explains some
of the nuances of museum curating.

New Jersey’s research lodge used to meet in this room.

The West of the same room.

The first minutes of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.

I didn’t realize a few details about the mysterious lodge
at Basking Ridge were at our fingertips.

New Jersey has a Crudeli bust too!
Sorry for the glare.

In the museum room.

It’s not a museum, in my view, without tobacciana,
although I believe this is a match safe, not a snuff box.

I love these menageries fashioned by creative brethren.

Make Masonic material culture great again!

Remember when grand lodge law books could fit
in your jacket pocket? Good times.

The Royal Arch apron of John Scott, MEGHP
of the Grand Chapter of New Jersey in 1826
and the namesake of my chapter, Scott No. 4.

While we were enjoying the Museum of Masonic Culture,
Glenn and Mark recorded a promo for their podcast,
The Rite Stuff, seen on YouTube. Click here.

     

‘Washington museum catalog now online’

    

GL of Washington

The Masonic Library & Museum of the Grand Lodge of Washington announced yesterday how its museum collection catalog is viewable online now. From the publicity:

Our Museum Collection

is Viewable Online

Curious what artifacts we preserve at the Washington Masonic Library & Museum? Our catalog is now viewable online! Check it out via the Washington Masonic Services website here.

Just some of the items viewable online include a Grand Lodge of Washington Territory Banner (c. 1858), panoramas of Washington Grand Lodge meetings held in the 1920s, historic lesser lights from Steilacoom Lodge 2, a Masonic Grandfather clock (c. 1910s), and so much more. Every month more museum artifacts are added to this digital collection. Remember to check back periodically to see what is new.

Washington State’s history is deeply connected with Freemasonry, a fact explored in depth at the Masonic Library & Museum. This institution sheds light on how Masons, including the state’s first governor and numerous influential figures, like legislators and judges, have shaped its governance and community. Even today, Masonic members play a significant role in various local and state sectors.

The museum showcases the enduring impact of Masonic values from the state’s early days to the present. Our professional curator works in partnership with the volunteers who are the Masonic Library & Museum’s foundation and have cared for it since its inception. Together, this team tends to approximately 50,000 Masonic books, photos, and documents, plus 6,000 artifacts that comprise our collections.

The Masonic Library & Museum is a service available to the individuals, lodges, and the community at large. Those seeking to expand their knowledge of Freemasonry will find this to be an invaluable resource, with many items available online. The professional expertise of the WAMS curator is an opportunity for lodges to learn best practices to safeguard the important Masonic artifacts that they hold.

     

‘Bill Paul Horn Medal 2022’

    

Masonic Society President Oscar Alleyne, doing what he does best, at the lectern Monday at the Grand Lodge of Washington’s communication. Cameron Bailey photo.

I don’t know if Oscar’s home has a mantel, but if it does, I choose to envision it laden with all kinds of awards. His latest from the world of Freemasonry is the Grand Lodge of Washington’s Bill Paul Horn Memorial Masonic Medal. Congratulations, Oscar!

The honor is named for a past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Washington, but it is not necessary to be a Washington Mason to receive it. Oscar is from New York. Past honorees include Ernest Borgnine, Bob Davis, Matt Dupee, Dick Fletcher, Tom Jackson, Joe Manning, Ron Seale, and Aaron Shoemaker.

Please don’t ask me to recapitulate all of Oscar’s accomplishments in Freemasonry, but of course he is President of the Masonic Society, which says it all.

     

‘Bailey’s boycott’

    

Cameron M. Bailey

The Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Washington published a personal statement Sunday saying he believes it is necessary for grand lodges to withdraw fraternal recognition now from those few remaining jurisdictions that still have not established relations with their Prince Hall Affiliated neighbors.

Writing on Substack, Cameron Bailey, in an essay titled “Prince Hall Recognition: It Is Well Past Time,” says:

By recognizing as legitimate those jurisdictions that refuse to recognize their Prince Hall counterparts, the Grand Lodge of Washington, through its silence, gives its consent to an ongoing moral wrong. It stands silent as a discrimination that should have been done away with in 1897 continues in a small handful of states.

This was wrong in 1897, it is wrong today, and if we don’t do something about it, it will be wrong next year as well.

It is well past time that the Jurisdictions that do recognize their Prince Hall counterparts take positive action standing up for that which is good and right and moral.

This is no sudden outburst from the Grand Master. His opinion has been known for a long time. His reference to 1897 is a recollection of how his Grand Lodge made the extraordinary move to close the racial divide by recognizing PHA Freemasonry. At that time, the other grand lodges in the United States beat Washington into submission by withholding their recognition of that jurisdiction.

Washington tried it again in 1990, and that time the diplomacy worked, sparking the revolution that has spread across the country to all but six jurisdictions in the South.

My thoughts on this may be primitive, so please be patient. First, I don’t know that instigating less recognition is the best way to create more recognition. Maybe it would be. I do not know. Second, recognition between two parties must be mutual. I can’t say for a fact that the PHA grand lodges affected today even want the friendship of these now rogue southern grand jurisdictions. Maybe one or more or all would choose to establish mutual relations. I don’t know. (I’m one of the few who admits publicly that I don’t know things. My motto, “I drink and I don’t know things,” was co-opted and turned upside down by that dumb TV show.) Thirdly, it’s possible that progress is being made already in one or more of these southern states—say it with me: I don’t know—and an audacious provocation like this might be counterproductive.

Should make for lively conversation at the Conference of Grand Masters next February!

    

‘Shoemaker receives Washington honor’

     

It was thirty years ago this month when the Grand Lodge of Washington devised an honor to confer in recognition of distinguished, but discreet, service to the Masonic fraternity, and the newest recipient of the Bill Paul Horn Memorial Masonic Medal is Aaron Shoemaker!

The decoration is named for a past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Washington, but it is not necessary to be a Washington Mason to receive it. Aaron is from Missouri. Past honorees include Ernest Borgnine, Bob Davis, Matt Dupee, Dick Fletcher, Nat Granstein, Forrest Haggard, Tom Jackson, Joe Manning, and Ron Seale.

Aaron is a long-serving member of the Board of Directors of the Masonic Society, and is the Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the USA. He is a Past Grand Chancellor of the Grand College of Rites. I’m going to stop there, because I honestly cannot remember all of his meritorious labors in Freemasonry. He and I go way back to the first years of this century in the Masonic Light group, and I met him for the first time in 2006, when the Rose Circle Research Foundation held its first symposium at my former lodge in New Jersey.

Congratulations, my friend!