‘ICHF 2017?’

     

It was announced at the 2011 International Conference on the History of Freemasonry in Alexandria, Virginia that the next conferences would be hosted in Edinburgh in 2013, Toronto in 2015, and England in 2017, that being the tercentenary of the Grand Lodge of England. This year’s event did not come to fruition due to financial obstacles, and it was announced today by the Grand Lodge of Scotland that it is weighing the concept of hosting a smaller event (date TBD) in Scotland that would be “more focused on Scottish Freemasonry,” indicating ICHF 2017 in England is not to be.

Courtesy GLS

I think this spells the demise of the ICHF tradition if Scotland will become the lone thematic and geographic locus. ICHF might remain an international affair by attracting presenters and audience from around the world, but if everything delivered from the podium will be Scot-centric—and don’t get me wrong: I love most of what I know of Scottish culture—then I wonder how long it could be sustained before it becomes a forum only for Scottish lodge histories and biographies.

As for England in 2017, as reported months ago in the pages of The Journal of The Masonic Society, Quatuor Coronati 2076 will host a tercentenary celebration at Queens’ College, Cambridge next September. Planning is advanced by now (call for papers, etc. was long ago). I’ll share news of this as it becomes available.
     

‘ICHF 2015 canceled’

     
Word is getting out—there may even be an official announcement somewhere, although I do not see it on the web—that the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry scheduled for 2015 in Ontario is canceled. Ontario Masons instead are said to be attempting to organize something under their own auspices.

Anyone possessing more facts is asked to provide them in the comments section below.

ICHF 2017 is slated to take place in England as part of the celebration of the tercentenary of the birth of the Premier Grand Lodge.

     

‘Flashback Friday: The Mt. Nebo apron’

     
If I had to choose a favorite aspect of Masonic history—defined by period, rather than subject—I would pick Freemasonry in the United States from Colonial times to the Federalist era. Records, while not scant, are neither abundant nor pregnant with detail, so most of what we know derives from official sources, like grand lodge proceedings, which I believe tend to be more subjective (even political) than candid and complete. This means there are many pieces to find and fit into the puzzle, and it is fun to read what scholars come up with.

Mt. Nebo Lodge No. 91’s historic George Washington apron.

Then there are artifacts: the furniture, regalia, publications, folk art, ephemera, porcelain, ceramics, glassware, pewter, silver, gold, and, in this case, textile crafts that have survived the centuries, enduring inundations, conflagrations, thieving, and neglect. Things you can see and maybe touch today. As today is Independence Day in the United States, the inspiration of this week’s “Flashback Friday” is a certain apron kept for the ages by Mt. Nebo Lodge No. 91 in West Virginia.

Click to enlarge.

This Masonic apron created a buzz three years ago on the occasion of the lodge’s bicentenary celebration, at which time the apron was shared with the Masonic world, making the impression that it was something newly discovered when it really had been displayed on the north wall of the lodge room at Mt. Nebo for generations. That same year coincided with the hosting of the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry by the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria. The apron was displayed proudly inside the main lecture hall where I shot these photos on the first day of the conference. This apron was worn by George Washington. It is not the only such apron, and is not “THE” George Washington apron, which is a misnomer. It was a gift from the Grand Lodge of France, presented to Washington by Marquis de Lafayette.

When the apron was unveiled at ICHF, Worshipful Master George Alwin offered these remarks, copied from the lodge’s website:


“George Washington is known as a man of courage from his life as a general. He is known as a leader from his life as president. But George Washington was known as a man of character by his life as a Mason. During his life, Washington received two French aprons as gifts, which he cherished. One is known as the Watson-Cassoul apron. The second apron was presented to him by his good friend and fellow Mason, General Lafayette of France. That apron is before you now.

“When Brother Washington passed in 1799, the Lafayette apron was sold at a family estate sale for six dollars. Thomas Hammond, husband of Washington’s niece Mildred Washington, bought the apron. Hammond became a member of Mount Nebo Lodge in Shepherdstown, Virginia in 1815, and gave the apron to the lodge as a gift. Shepherdstown became part of West Virginia after the Civil War.

Courtesy Mt. Nebo 91

“In 1892, the apron was loaned to the Grand Lodge of Minnesota for their Annual Communication. In appreciation for the loan of such a valuable object, the Grand Lodge had a beautiful hand-carved frame built to display the apron. The Grand Lodge transported both the apron and the frame to Chicago, where a camera was available to photograph them. That photo is included in the Mount Nebo Lodge Bicentennial Brochure.

“For over a century, the George Washington/Lafayette apron has hung in Mount Nebo Lodge, protected from the sun in a dark lodge room. Without publicity and out of the public eye, it came to be known by many as ‘the Lost Apron.’

“Today, to celebrate the bicentennial of Mount Nebo Lodge No. 91 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, I am honored to present to you the George Washington/Lafayette Masonic Apron.”

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

On July 3, 1776, Continental Congress Delegate John Adams, in a letter to Abigail, said of the Fourth of July: “It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” I hope you get some of that today, and I wish you a joyful Independence Day.
     

‘Flashback Friday: Three Extinct Knocks’

     
I had meant for Flashback Friday to be a weekly feature here for telling you about events that I’d neglected to write about in a timely manner, but I haven’t even posted Flashbacks on time. It’s not for a lack of overdue subject matter, believe me. I never even addressed the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry at Alexandria, and that was three years ago and alone merits several thousand words, plus a few dozen photos. I’ll get to it. Eventually.

But today we travel back to Friday, February 8, 2013 when the Grand College of Rites met for its annual meeting at Reston, Virginia. I confess my notes from this occasion are with That Which Was Lost, but the meaningful artifact—my copy of Volume 22, Part 1 of Collectanea, distributed to members in attendance and later mailed to those wherever dispersed over the face of the earth—is handy. I really have been remiss in not telling you earlier about this great service to Masonry.

But first—and bear with me a minute—speaking of ICHF 2011, early in the conference, Professor William D. Moore, then of UNC-Wilmington and now of Boston University, presented “Darius Wilson, Confidence Games, and the Limits of American Fraternal Respectability, 1875-1915.” Excerpted from his abstract:

“This presentation will examine the forty-year career of Darius Wilson, who founded the Royal Arcanum, assumed the title of ‘Grand Master of the Venerable Symbolic Grand Lodge Ancient Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry for the United States of America,’ and claimed to have developed a cure for deafness. Between 1875 and 1915, Wilson was both hailed for providing insurance to poverty-stricken immigrants and decried as a fraud who foisted worthless fraternal, medical, and financial certificates upon a credulous public. A resident of Boston, Massachusetts, Wilson was a member of Rochester, New York’s Yonnondio Lodge No. 163, F&AM, before he was expelled. Subsequently he was repeatedly arrested and tried for improperly selling Masonic degrees.

William D. Moore at ICHF 2011.

“Wilson provides a case study for the exploration of issues of authority, legitimacy, and confidence within the American industrializing economy, and will provide new perspectives for understanding both fraternalism and Progressive cries for governmental regulation at the birth of the twentieth century.”

With that taste of context established, here are some of the salient details and eye-catching curiosities from this volume of Collectanea, titled “Darius Wilson’s Most Worshipful Grand Lodge Ancient and Accepted Scottish Free Masons of the United States of America,” edited by Arturo de Hoyos, Grand Archivist of the Grand College of Rites.

The book opens with several pieces of Masonic legal documents concerning the expulsion from Freemasonry of Darius Wilson, deemed an impostor. It was March 1902 when the charges made against Wilson were sent to Charles W. Mead, Grand Master of New York. Wilson was accused of “clandestinely and unlawfully” assisting in conferring the degrees of Masonry upon one Theodore A Tripp. Wilson answered the charge with a denial, but a finding of facts states that Wilson, acting at his professional office located at 41 West 24th Street in Manhattan (only steps from the previous Masonic Hall, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York, which meets there still today, in two buildings constructed approximately a decade later) did serve as a senior deacon in ceremonies that imparted the grips, signs, and words of the degrees of Craft Masonry, allegedly under the auspices of a lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Ohio on Friday, December 13, 1901.

Evidence in the case against Wilson included a handbill advertising the availability of the degrees of Masonry, courtesy of “the new Grand Lodge of Ohio,” which stated it was forming Masonic lodges in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in New England. This document runs several hundred words, but I’ll quote the first sentences to show the more things change, the more they stay the same. See if this reminds you of the lunacy seen all over the internet, thanks to self-described, self-initiated, and self-deluded “Masons” who create or lend their names to websites that purport to be lodges, among other shams.

“Would you like to be a Mason? There is no patent right on Masonry, and no man or body of men have exclusive jurisdiction to work any degrees thereof. All Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular.”

In a document offered by Wilson in his defense, the same logic was applied toward the High Degrees of Masonry and even the Shrine, as memberships in something dubbed King Edward Consistory 32° and something else named Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine were offered free of charge to the intrepid men of the new Masonry. “Our Scottish Rite is neither the Northern or Southern Jurisdiction or either of the ‘Cerneau Rite’ Supreme Councils, but it is the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland, and ours is the only Supreme Council that was ever authorized by Free Masons of Scotland to work the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States. If you desire to take the degrees from the 4° to the 32° inclusive, and can come to my New York office during my office hours… I will arrange to have the degrees conferred upon you without any cost to you whatever, after which I can offer you something of perhaps greater interest.”

You get the idea, but I’ll point out the inconsistency of both insisting that “all Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular,” and boasting of having “the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland.” Of course it is hilarious, especially if you possess a rudimentary knowledge of Scottish Rite, but it also is a “logic” key to today’s fakes, phonies, and frauds.

Courtesy Prof. Moore

In the end, Wilson—who is identified as grand master of this rite by a note within the text of the ritual—was expelled from the Grand Lodge of New York. Collectanea is unambiguous with the facts of Masonic jurisprudence; Professor Moore’s paper was lenient with Wilson.




(I chatted with Moore after his presentation, and it turns out he was a volunteer at the Livingston Library years ago.)

Now, to the ritual.

The language of these EA, FC, and MM degrees is, for the most part, easily recognizable to Masons today. The origins of these degrees are unknown, but there are elements of French work and custom. In fact, the Grand Orient is mentioned several times in the text in ways that suggest a relationship. French Rite ritual had been used in New York City in Grand Lodge of New York lodges for more than a century by this point. Regardless, there are unfamiliar idioms, some quirky, others hugely significant.

The Lodge Opening: The lodge is “well guarded,” not tiled. The Wardens, not Deacons, take up the Word. The Word is changed semi-annually. Visitors remain outside until after the “Family Work” (lodge business) is completed. Business is done on the EA Degree. The lodge is alternately called the “Respectable Lodge” and “Respectable Workshop.”

The lodge is opened, in part, with the members, in unison, giving a sign, a battery, and this, “the mysterious acclamation”: “Houze. Houze. Houze.” Or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” (This “houze,” as best I can guess, is a cousin of “huzzah,” a variation of “hurrah” or “hooray.” Anyone knowing for sure is asked to post a comment below.) In voting, the members raise their right arms, and “noisily” slap their hands on their thighs. To speak, a member first must obtain permission from the Master (imagine that) and, while speaking, make a hand gesture that I take to be a familiar one to Apprentices.

The initiation: An officer named Master Expert attends to visitors, ensuring they can prove themselves. Candidates for initiation are seated in the East, where the Master tends to interrogatories. These questions, perhaps unsurprisingly because we don’t know what, if any, inquiries were made into the characters and standings of prospective members, are not queries meant to elicit biographical information, but are mostly rhetorical questions intended to justify to the candidate the lodge’s existence. For example:

“If Masonry is good, why should not all good Masons rejoice when any profane is made a Mason, no matter whether by one Rite or another?”

And:

“Do you know that the Ancient and Accepted or Scottish Rite Masonry, the kind practiced by us, is the only universal Masonry—that is, the only kind that is practiced in nearly all, if not in all, countries of the world?”

Indeed, this appears to be a French Rite, or often called Scottish Rite, Entered Apprentice Degree, very similar to what the celebrated Garibaldi Lodge No. 542 works in Italian in New York City. There is Brother Terrible. There is “swordplay,” I guess I’ll call it. There are symbolic trials of fortitude and endurance, and sensory stimuli (e.g., a drink of water flavored with quassia). There are philosophical questions posed to the candidate by the Master (e.g., “What is ignorance?” “What is your opinion of fanaticism and superstition?” “What is error?”)

A first journey (widdershins) involves various spatial challenges, and symbolizes life’s passions, conflicts, and obstacles. A second journey (clockwise) is easier deliberately to symbolize “the effect of constancy in following the road of virtue.” A third journey, from West to East, is conducted silently and effortlessly as reward for perseverance.

There are two obligations. The first is rightly called an obligation for the way its bonds the candidate to his new brethren; the second is actually an oath, for the way it binds the candidate to the authority of his new lodge and grand lodge. The language of both is standard Masonic usage, and the penalty of the degree is consistent with what you’d expect.

There is the “triple bise,” as our French brethren might say, although this one includes a plant on the lips. No comment.

The second degree: It is worked in a Lodge of Companions. The degree strikes me as mostly standard European Masonic ritual, except for a few conspicuous allowances for modernity. The Industrial Revolution never impacted the ritual my lodge works, and I bet the same can be said of yours. Here, however, we find a frankly delightful alchemical nod to Bro. James Watt:

“Among men, one of the manifestations of life is the movement of blood, like the movements in a steam engine, which are repetitions of expansions and condensations of steam. In the engine, the actuating force is the fire which changes the water into steam in the boiler. Forced to find an outlet, the steam pushes the piston and excapes by an orifice to be condensed by the cold air, and returned to a reservoir as water, [and] reintroduced into the boiler by a feeding pump. This is perpetual so long as the fire, water, and air are thus utilized.”

And a moment later, some thoughts on natural electricity from the Worshipful Master—and remember this comes from the early years of man-made electricity. Excerpted:

“With electricity, the most intense heat known to man can be produced. Under its devouring influence, the metals volatize in an instant, and stones melt like the snow in a hot fire.”

The Number Five is presented by five symbolic journeys about the lodge, each involving a pair of working tools or Liberal Arts and Sciences. Most are familiar, but there also is the “pinch,” a small crowbar. The five physical senses are discussed as “symbols of our spiritual faculties.” And the letter G? It is “the image of universal intelligence,” as Geometry supports Astronomy, which “has given us the courage to measure the sun, moon and myriad other stars…”

It is worth noting that the Word of the Rose Croix Degree is imparted here, as explanatory of the neophyte’s fourth journey in this degree.

The third degree: A Lodge of Masters, termed the Middle Chamber, receives the Companion seeking advancement in the form of “an augmentation of salary.” You know what he’s getting at. The talk, again, goes philosophical, as the candidate is asked to describe his understandings of “right,” justice, and conscience. Whatever his answers, it is the Worshipful Master who informs the lodge that:

“Right is that which we are permitted to do in accordance with the dictates of our conscience. Each man has the right to assure, protect, and develop his material existence, his intellectual faculties, and his moral qualities…. Justice is the highest of virtues; it makes us respect the rights of others and render to each that which belongs to him. This virtue is then essential to every true Mason…. Conscience is the sense of justice which we have naturally in us in our quality of reasonable beings. It is the cry from the heart of man, the marvelous voice which he hears from the depths of his soul, which tells him that which is just and good, and which saves him from inclination to evil.”

The Wilson ritual’s greatest departure from the work standard in most of America is embodied by “the cooling corpse.” There is no candidate raising in this MM°, but rather the Companion is conducted toward a coffin (occupied by the previously made MM, dubbed the Respectable Master). The trials of our GMHA are consistent with what you know, but with a different tool here, and a different injury there, and the hurried burial of “Hiram Abiff or Adon Hiram” (sic) differs a bit, but in the degree’s spiritual essence we see something highly unusual.

Arturo de Hoyos at the meeting.

The exemplar MM in the coffin is raised to his feet in a way you’ll know. The Worshipful Master exclaims: “Our Master has returned today. He is reborn in the person of [candidate’s name].” Of course, the talk of rebirth catches the eye. The mainstream of Freemasonry does not promise the supernatural, especially in the forms of resurrection or reincarnation. The degree continues, taking another Rose Croix turn with the WM saying “Thus day by day, each hemisphere afflicted by the absence of the father of light, assumes again, when he reappears, its cheerfulness and brilliant dress; thus, the torch of genius and of truth dissipates the shades of ignorance and error.” The Wardens reply: “Let us unite, my Brothers, to celebrate the return of light and truth.” Then follows the obligation (no surprises), and the instruction in the Five Points of Mastership: “hand to hand I greet you as a Brother; foot to foot I will support you in all your laudable undertakings; knee to knee the posture of my daily supplication shall remind me of your wants; breast to breast, your lawful secrets, when entrusted to me as such, I will keep as my own; and hand over back, I will support your character in your absence as in your presence.”

At the end, the Worshipful Master delivers the Allocution, a fairly lengthy and poetic legendary history of Masonry that renders GMHA superior over Solomon, as it is Hiram who is “the personification of humanity working and struggling without ceasing, succumbing sometimes, but always returning stronger, more active and more courageous to continue the march and arrive at the supreme end—eternal truth.”

▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼

Pierre 'Pete' Normand
Grand Chancellor, 2013

At our meeting back on February 8, 2013, a new Grand Chancellor was installed. Pierre “Pete” Normand of Texas is well known about the apartments of the Temple, especially the libraries and reading rooms. He most definitely is an education Mason, perhaps best known for championing the 21st century revival in American Masonry that has become known collectively as the “Traditional Observance” movement. Pete’s lodge, St. Albans No. 1455 in College Station, helped spark that revolution when he co-founded it ... in 1992!

In other news, the College’s Knight Grand Cross was awarded to several greatly surprised brethren. It was fun watching Bill Brunk, Paul Johnson, and Joe Manning be summoned to the East, and a great honor to stand with them and receive the prestigious award. I don’t want to gush, but I’ll say it means a lot.

     

'The Templar test'

    
The dates of the next International Conference on the History of Freemasonry have been announced. ICHF will return to Scotland for 2013. Next up will be a repeated call for papers this summer, followed by the release of a list of chosen presenters in the form of a tentative conference agenda early next year.

No one has any idea which scholars will be selected to present which researched subjects, but I hope you will consider this challenge if you have bought into the Templar myth of Masonic origins. I predict no research paper will seek to advance the notion that our Masonic fraternal order has its roots in the medieval military order commonly called the Knights Templar, and I ask you to understand why.

Scores of accomplished academics and other skilled scholars from around the world will present their findings on a dizzying variety of subjects during the three days of this conference, but I don't think anyone will attempt to advance the supposition, which was born in about the mid 18th century, that Freemasonry descended from the medieval Templars. My challenge to you is simply to ask yourselves why that might be. In the very land where the Templars allegedly appeared out of nowhere to vanquish the English and save Robert the Bruce's rear end at Bannockburn, a three-day conference on Masonic history will make no claim of paternity against these alleged forefathers of Freemasonry.

Remain calm, be open-minded and circumspect, ask yourselves why that is, and form an objective answer.
    

‘Second Circle is ON’

     

'Oh, it is so on.'

“The dead have no existence

other than that which

the living imagine for them.”

Jean-Claude Schmitt

Ghosts in the Middle Ages:

The Living and the Dead
in Medieval Society

The New Jersey Second Circle of The Masonic Society will meet again next week for its second annual Feast of Saint Andrew.

Wednesday, November 30

7 p.m.

Bloomfield Steak and Seafood House

409 Franklin Street in Bloomfield

Cost: $41 per person.

Your message here (optional):

Professor Breandán Mac Suibhne will present The Freemasons and the Fannet Ghost: An Episode in Irish Cultural History, 1786–1822. This will be a reprise of his lecture to the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry in Virginia this May. It is part ghost story, and part political history, but it is a tale you won’t forget.

Breandán Mac Suibhne, Assistant Professor of History at Centenary College, is a historian of society and culture in Ireland. He has published on para-militarism and the construction of Irish identity in the 1780s, republican rebellion and its suppression in the 1790s, and agrarian “improvement” and social and political unrest in the 1800s.

One of the founding editors of Field Day Review, an interdisciplinary journal of Irish politics and culture past and present, he also is editor of John Gamble’s Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland, and, with David Dickson, he edited Hugh Dorian’s The Outer Edge of Ulster: A Memoir of Social Life in Nineteenth-Century Donegal, the most extensive account of Ireland’s Great Famine. He is completing a monograph on northwest Ulster, c. 1786–1822.

Let’s get together for drinks at 6:30, and we’ll retire to our room at 7 p.m.

It is NOT necessary to be a member of The Masonic Society to attend. All Masons are welcome, as are our ladies, family, and friends.

If you were there last year, you noticed it’s a small space. Seating IS limited to 30. Reservations are required and, as always, must be made in advance by transmitting your payment, via PayPal. See the "button" above.

For entrées we’ll have broiled salmon, chicken marsala, and prime rib, plus red roasted potatoes, all served as buffet. Plus there will be copious appetizers, the house salad, soft drinks, and coffee & dessert. Of course the bar will be open for your individual patronage.

(And of course the famous Masonic Society gift bag awaits you at the end of the evening.)

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at that address as well, and I will get right back to you.

Swingers image courtesy Independent Pictures (II).

'Sunset on ICHF 2011'

 

The George Washington Masonic Memorial,
overlooking King Street in Alexandria, Virginia,
site of ICHF 2011.

 
The third International Conference on the History of Freemasonry is itself history. The fourth conference will be convened in the north of England in 2013, and the fifth will take place in Ontario in 2015.

Bound for ICHF

    
Wow! When I said in the post below that I may be spending too much time blogging, I didn't think I'd take a sabbatical of 90 days, but that's how it worked out for a variety of humbling reasons.

The Magpie Mason will be back to its usual tricks in June with coverage of things Masonic. I still have to tell you about the Rose Circle conference, Trevor Stewart at The Players, a few great nights at Nutley Lodge, and even some events from Masonic Week. Man, that feels like it was five years ago. Plus, there's my lecture to the Joseph Campbell Foundation's New York City Chapter, and some other odd, improbable curiosities. There are many other things that I'll get to during the course of the summer, as the recollections return to view. Hope I don't forget anything.

Oh yeah! The Masonic Society's New Jersey Second Circle Gathering. Our St. John's Day Feast on Friday, June 24 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. A very special evening is planned!

At the moment I'm off to bed so as to arise in four hours to drive to the George Washington Masonic Memorial, the site of the 2011 International Conference on the History of Freemasonry. Been waiting two years for this.

Complete Magpie coverage, etc., etc., to come. Monday.
    

‘Another four bits’

Good news coming from the Annual Communication (or, if you must, “convention”) last week of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey: The annual per capita donation to the George Washington Masonic Memorial from each Master Mason of half a buck... has been doubled! The Magpie Mason congratulates MW Bro. Edgar Peppler, a past president of the GWMM Association, and MW Bro. John Ryan, a former member of the Board of Directors, both past grand masters of New Jersey, for proposing the legislation that sealed the deal.


Their explanation of the requested funding:

The George Washington Masonic Memorial was conceived, financed, constructed and is supported and maintained by the Freemasons of the United States to honor the memory, character and legacy of the greatest American citizen, soldier, Freemason and president that ever lived. The mission of the Memorial is: ‘To inspire humanity through education to emulate and promote the virtues, character and vision of George Washington, the Man, the Mason and the Father of our Country.’


It is the only Masonic national memorial in the nation and continues to be financed and forever owned by the Freemasons of the United Sates. We, as Masons and proprietors, have supported the Memorial with an assessment of only 50 cents per member each year since 1994. This request for an increase to $1 per member, per year, is the first increase in 16 years. It will benefit the Memorial as a museum; tourist attraction and destination; research center and library; center for community activities; performing arts center and concert hall. However, first and foremost, it is a Masonic memorial, honoring the memory, character and legacy of our Brother, George Washington. Please take the opportunity to visit your Memorial during the ensuing year.

Actually I think that may be boilerplate text supplied by the Memorial, and believe me, New Jersey hardly is the only or first jurisdiction to make this change, but the brethren did it. The GWMM is enjoying a revitalization of late, as it has been transformed from a quaint tourist curiosity with 1950s era exhibits to a locus of Masonic culture and scholarship. Under Executive Director George Seghers and Director of Collections Mark Tabbert, the Memorial not only is becoming one of America’s top Masonic education resources, but it is actually leading our country as a top learning institution on the international scene.


In 12 months, the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry will hold its biannual meeting at the GWMM, the first time it will convene in the United States. Later this year, the Memorial will co-host the annual meeting of the Masonic Library and Museum Association.


Quite a difference from the days when the Grotto exhibit was hot stuff.


The Memorial also is becoming a revolutionary host of digital data, thanks to its partnership with OCLC, the creator of the ContentDM Database. This resource allows lodges and other Masonic bodies to upload and manage limitless stores of data, be it historical records, inventories and photos of artifacts and documents, membership info, or whatever. A priceless resource for researchers, and a great opportunity for Masonry’s archivists, historians, and those who simply care about Masonic culture and historic preservation.


In addition, the Memorial offers Masonic bodies the opportunity to digitize printed materials. Imagine your grand lodge’s entire library of annual proceedings turned into digital data, searchable, portable, and in all ways modernized. This is HUGE. Read all about it here.


The George Washington Masonic Memorial is realizing its potential to be an agent of change that helps American Freemasonry conserve its great heritage in ways highly useful to the modern man, providing the ideal mix of timeless knowledge and timely technology. The perfect way to begin its second century.

Another Big Night at ‘The Little Inn’ (conclusion)

It normally doesn’t take your correspondent a week and a half to complete a thought, but it’s been a hectic week and a half. Forthwith, here is Part Four of “Another Big Night at the Little Inn.”

“Thank you for the 48 hours notice,” said Bro. Trevor Stewart to Master of Ceremonies Bill Thomas. “I appreciate the gesture!” It was true. Trevor had been drafted into the program at the proverbial eleventh hour. Not having a talk formally prepared, he nonetheless professorially clutched a sheaf of papers as he spoke engagingly of the ways brethren of the 18th century supported the arts in their communities.


“We know from playbills and other ephemera that, as the 18th century went on, Freemasons, as individuals or lodges, were involved with theatrical performances,” he said, beginning a short lecture on what could be titled “Processions: Masons in Regalia.” Torch-lit parades, even with military bands, would march from the tavern/lodge to the theater and back. “This happened frequently.” I don’t know if Trevor realized it, but he was expanding on a detail in the talk he gave in this very room 52 Mondays ago.

This started around 1723. It was “strange in England,” because a ban on Masonic processions was attempted in 1745 in the wake of scurrilous embarrassments. “But the Irish, bless them, had frequent processions,” Trevor said. We know from newspapers, diaries and playbills that comedies and Shakespeare were the frequent beneficiaries of Masonic sponsorship. “In the early 18th century, there were 11 lodges dedicated specifically to the name of Shakespeare!” And in fact, we had a Shakespeare Lodge with us that evening. The Bard’s comedies were very popular, but his historical plays – “Henry IV,” “Henry V,” and “Henry VI” also were underwritten by the brethren. These dramas, particularly “Henry V,” were popular because “they espoused ideas that went to the heart of the Hanoverian times” with melodrama, heroism and idealism.

This item has nothing to do with Trevor’s talk exactly, but it is in the archives of the Livingston Library, and was included in its exhibit at Fraunces Tavern Museum seven years ago. It is the program of St. Patrick’s Lodge’s St. John’s Day procession in New York City in 1795. The lodge was accompanied by 10 other lodges, two marching bands, a contingent of Knights Templar, and the Grand Lodge officers. They marched from City Hall, through what is today the Financial District, and to “the Church,” which I take to mean St. Paul's. They returned to City Hall by a different route.

There were exceptions though.

“Prior to 1745, there were plays of ‘Macbeth’ sponsored by the Masons,” Trevor Stewart explained, but that stopped because the Hanoverians, “a very querulous people,” feared any talk of rebellion.

There were several motives at work in the Masonic patronage of the performing arts. The brethren quickly arranged to sponsor plays and to put themselves on parade, “making a spectacle of themselves in a theatrical and political statement.” These processions had order, and were characterized with “great dignity and decorum.” The brethren were not only on display in the street, but at the theater they’d sit in special boxes with the Lord Provost and other civil authorities. “Masonic lodges were taking active part in the body politic at this time. They were guys who had arrived, socially.”

They were opportunistic, but they also raised money to give to charity, and “not just Masonic charity, but any charity.” A playbill in 1785 told how “a poor house and asylum for the mad folk” in Edinburgh was one such recipient. “They were motivated by the idea of being good, and being charitable to the less fortunate.”

“The gentlemen Masons were putting on street theater, but more importantly than that, they played a crucial part of the body politic at the time,” Trevor added. “As the 18th century progressed, the legitimate activity of a gentleman was not just to be in the isolation of his lodge room, but to also be out in the streets, in coffeehouses, literary clubs and attending the theater, culturally inspired.”

“So, what has this got to do with us? We can’t parade in the streets with our regalia as much as we might wish,” he added, “but we can sponsor plays and musical performances. Why not?”

He then went on to explain how last year’s International Conference on the History of Freemasonry featured the young musicians of the Royal Academy of Scotland, thanks to the sponsorship of the Grand Masters of England, Ireland and Scotland. He also told of the lavish catalog provided to him that chronicled a major artistic exhibition in London, but that had no mention of Freemasonry. “Why not?” he asked. “We can’t parade in the street, but we can make that statement.”

The Magpie Mason could not agree more! There is so much opportunity to show ourselves to the public. Not by bowling against the Elks lodge down the street, but by sponsoring the arts, especially in and around New York City. Just off the top of my head: Lincoln Center has “Mostly Mozart” and the Duke Ellington festival; there is “Shakespeare in the Park” in Central Park; the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is just across the Hudson from West Point; “The Magic Flute” pops up at the Met and NJPAC on occasion. I may have been the only one who knew, but a mere 72 hours after this dinner-lecture the chamber orchestra called Suedama Ensemble would perform a concert inspired by Freemasonry just a few miles away! (But more on that later.) All of these endeavors rely mightily on private sector sponsorship.

Livingston Library Executive Director Tom Savini had the sobering answer.

“We need to look within before we look outside to help others,” he said, explaining how the library’s priority now is to find the resources to create the position of archivist. In the works is a database to record the histories of New York lodges, past and present.



Hopefully the means will be found to support many parallel projects in the effort to preserve Masonic culture, both within and without the temple.