‘Washington Inaugural Bible on display’

     
New-York Historical Society opened an exhibit a few weeks ago where you can see the King James Bible on which George Washington took his first presidential oath of office. “Meet the Presidents” has no posted closing date, but I figure the artifacts now on display will be succeeded by others planned for rotation, so check it out.

Courtesy St. John’s Lodge No. 1 Foundation, Inc.

The Bible, as I’m sure you know, is owned by St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York City. It was the lodge’s altar Bible on April 30, 1789 when Washington was to be sworn into office at what we now call Federal Hall on Wall Street. Just before the ceremony, it was decided to add a Bible to the proceedings, so Jacob Morton, Master of the lodge, retrieved this VSL for use in administering the oath of office. Read more about this here.

For more on this exhibit, click here. To help the foundation preserve this historic treasure, click here.
     

‘Historians and America’s First Secret Societies’

  
There are plenty of blogs out there devoted to Freemasonry, but it can be more fun reading blogs from outside the fraternity that occasionally focus on Masonry from their perspectives. It’s usually history.

From the Stacks, the blog of the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, features a post today written by Mr. Kevin Butterfield titled Historians and America’s First Secret Societies. Butterfield is a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at N-YHS this year. His research here stems from his doctoral dissertation.

Courtesy New-York Historical Society 

Click here to read the piece and see the accompanying art, including this image of the Masonic Hall, located on Broadway near Pearl Street, c.1831. Pretty churchly architecture, eh? Click the image to enlarge.