ALR anniversary

 
Happy Anniversary wishes are in order! On this date in 1931 was held the Constituting Communication of American Lodge of Research under dispensation of the Grand Lodge of New York. (May 21, 1931 was the date of the first Stated Communication held under its own charter.)

The Magpie Mason is still playing catch-up in its reporting of recent events, the March 29 meeting of ALR among them, but before I tell you about that, let me share some ALR-related good news:

• The lodge's Publications Committee has been revamped by the Worshipful Master, with RW Bill Thomas serving as its new chairman, and the Master, Bro. Henry, Bro. Miller, and myself working together on the next book of transactions, which will go to the printer very soon.
• And ALR has a new website, one that is not hosted through Grand Lodge's site. Click here.
• In addition, there is a new Yahoo! Group for discussion of research, events, etc. Click here.

But about the latest meeting.

W. Bro. Uwe Hain presented "German Freemasons in the American Revolutionary War," which recounted the contributions of brethren from Germany... on both sides of the conflict.

That is the work of the lodge, and I'll explain more below but, in lodge business, there are a few announcements to make.

 

• Appointed to serve the rest of the year as Secretary Pro Temp, following the retirement of Harvey Eysman,  is none other than Michael Chaplin of Shakespeare Lodge No. 750, The Masonic Society, et al. The lodge extended a vote of thanks to Harvey, a Past Master and Fellow of the lodge who had served as Secretary for 23 years.

• Under membership, four new Active Members were elected, including Bro. Chaplin, our speaker Bro. Hain, and Bro. Mark Koltko-Rivera.

• A Special Communication has been called for Wednesday, September 29, when the lodge will meet in Syracuse. Details to be announced.

And in a related matter, Thomas Smith Webb Chapter of Research No. 1798, chartered under the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of New York, has published its first book of transactions. Its contents include "Symbolism, and Freemasonry as a Mystery School" by R.E. Piers A. Vaughan, Grand Principal Sojourner of the Grand Chapter of New York.

But back to Uwe's paper. He did a fine job of identifying the key military personnel from Germany who fought for the American and British causes, and who were Freemasons. The American War of Independence factors heavily in the story of Masonry in the United States, but it also is a component in the histories of Masonry in other countries.

Explaining how as much as one-third of the forces under British command actually were Hessians, the mercenary troops from Germany, he narrowed his focus, for example, to the 3,000 troops from the Braunschweig (Brunswick) region, including nine who would be initiated into the arts and mysteries of Freemasonry in an Irish military lodge, a lodge in which St. Patrick's Lodge No. 4 (Previously No. 8) has roots.

Nicholas Herkimer, of the Mohawk Valley area of New York (where there has been a village, a town, and a county named for him since 1788) would fight both for and against the British, but in both instances fighting for sovereignty. In the 1750s, during the French and Indian War (Seven Years War), Herkimer fought on the British side, against the invaders, but when the Revolution began, he quickly became a brigadier general of Colonial militia in his native area. He was made a Mason in St. Patrick's Lodge during peacetime in 1768.

Also on the side of American independence, of course, were the giants of history, like Baron von Steuben, the Prussian general staff officer under Frederick the Great, credited with creating the Continental Army by instilling the training and discipline the troops had lacked. He was a member of Trinity Lodge No. 10 (now No. 12) and later affiliated with Holland No. 8, both in New York.

And there is Baron DeKalb, the native of Bavaria who served under the French flag, under LaFayette, and became a major general in the Continental Army. He died of wounds sustained during the fighting at Camden, South Carolina in 1780. He funeral was a Masonic obsequy, officiated by none other than Gen. Charles Cornwallis, commander of the British forces in the south.

Of course there is much more information and many more details in the paper itself, which will be published in a forthcoming book of transactions of the lodge.

The next Stated Communication of the lodge will be Friday, October 29 at Masonic Hall in Manhattan. On the agenda thus far is the Magpie Mason, delivering "An Emblem of a Pure Heart: An Aromatic Editorial," which discusses the Pot of Incense as a Masonic symbol. I hope I'm only an opening act for someone better.
     

‘New Perspectives’

Scores of scholars and their supporters descended on the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington, Massachusetts last Friday to take part in the institution’s first academic symposium. Titled “New Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism,” the event attracted students of Freemasonry from across the nation and abroad, seven of whom were selected to present papers: Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida; Hannah M. Lane, Assistant Professor of History at Mount Allison University; Nicholas Bell, Curator at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; David Bjelajac, Professor of Art History at George Washington University; Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Flint; Kristofer Allerfeldt of Exeter University; and Adam Kendall, of the Grand Lodge of California’s Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum of Freemasonry.

The subjects broached by the lecturers varied from how best to analyze Masonic history to the socio-economic significance of lodge membership in the nineteenth century, to the works of Masons in the fine arts, to American Masonry’s struggles against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Approximately sixty scholars and other supporters of Masonic education made this inaugural event a great success. It may become a bi-annual tradition.

From left: Adam Kendall, Collections Manager at the Grand Lodge of California’s Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum of Freemasonry; Kristofer Allerfeldt of Exeter University; and John L. Palmer, Editor of Knight Templar magazine. Both Kendall and Allerfeldt presented papers on American Freemasonry and the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s, outlining the struggles of the grand lodges of California and Kansas to resist Klan infiltration of the Craft, and to contain the KKK within society at large.

Steven C. Bullock of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and author of Revolutionary Brotherhood, and Dr. Andreas Onnerfors, Director of the University of Sheffield's Centre for Research into Freemasonry were among the scholars in attendance.

‘A walk in the park’

     
Thanks to limited internet access (long story), The Magpie Mason has been mostly offline for about four weeks, so let me try to catch up. There is a lot of good news to report, from the March 29 meeting of The American Lodge of Research to a recent Rose Croix event, to the first symposium hosted by the AASR-NMJ, and more.

But first, a walk in the park.


Unseasonably warm and glorious weather embraced the New York City area at the start of the month, and so on Sunday the fourth I budgeted some time to enjoy a leisurely stroll around the campus of my alma mater, an area I frequented before and well after matriculation. Truthfully there is no campus (or at least that is how it’s explained in the annual crime statistics report), it’s called Greenwich Village.


I brought the camera, looking for sights and sites discernible to the initiated eye.


Washington Square Park now is in Phase II of a total reconstruction project that will erase the intent of its original landscape architect, and leave the Village with something that, frankly, no one asked for.

But there is still its world famous Arch. The Washington Square Arch. It has George Washington. It marks the square. It is an arch. Pretty Masonic, eh?

Dual likenesses of George Washington face the oncoming traffic headed down Fifth Avenue. At left, Washington the warrior. Right, Washington the statesman. And Washington is not the only Freemason in the park. Toward the east side, but facing the interior of the park is Giuseppe Garibaldi.

 

Grand Master Garibaldi, of course, is remembered as the George Washington of Italy. You can read a little more about him here.

Not far from that statue is a bust of Alexander Lyman Holley, an artificer in steel and other metals. Don't know if he was a Mason, and it's hard to figure out why he was honored with a statue here, but here he has stood since 1890. Some info about him and his statue can be read here. I'm including him in The Magpie mostly because this is a good shot of the bust's head:

Nearby, appropriately enough in La Guardia Gardens, is the landmark statue of Bro. Fiorello La Guardia erected in 1994 after the city decided against ruining the neighborhood by building an expressway that in effect would have extended Fifth Avenue to TriBeCa. There is irony in that, because it was Mayor La Guardia who appointed Robert Moses. Anyway, Bro. La Guardia was mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945. There is a lodge in Staten Island named for him.

Statues are not the only representations of peoples' faces in the neighborhood. A number of buildings are adorned with various Green Men, gargoyles, and assorted physiognomonic renderings in stone, wood, and even terra cotta. To wit:

As above: The Muse of Art.

So below: The Muse of Music.

Both date to approximately 1880, but were added to the frontage of one of the university's buildings on Washington Square East decades later, after being rescued by the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society from their original home before it was demolished.

Above: Around the corner, a little closer to Broadway, is this terra cotta Green Man.


Below: On Broadway, towering over Shakespeare & Co. Book Sellers, is this friendly fellow. (The bookstore had no Masonic titles on its shelves.) Sorry for the blur. I had to zoom in from the sidewalk across the street, and he is more than five stories up.

Coincidentally, the university's main bookstore displayed this book in its window. Note the Beehive. In the words of Bro. John Priede: "I will add this to my bookshelf."

A few doors to the north on Broadway is this structure, dating to 1860. Plenty of eyes staring down at you.

A close-up of the fellow near the top floor.

Note his neighbors, especially at lower right.

Columns, and arches, and keystones!

Left: The Fleur de Lis is a familiar symbol. Right: Note the Cornucopia. Both are found on university buildings on Washington Place.

Copper or bronze menorah on the front of Hebrew Union College.

The Torch of Liberty, or the Light of Knowledge? The NYU emblem's origins are somewhat obscure, but what I like is the choice of gold inlaid into granite or... New York neon!

Judson Church is fancifully adorned with complicated stonework.

Headed west, there are residential and commercial sites worth a look.

What a shade of green! 121 MacDougal Street.

Note the face in the keystone.

And across the street is perhaps the only jewelry store you could ever find me in. C'est Magnifique makes and sells all manner of silver rings and other pieces, most are highly unusual and many are symbolic. I rarely wear my Masonic rings, but when I do, it is the simple silver one I bought here in 1999. They also have antique pieces, and what I love most about the place is its dusty, pawn shop-like atmosphere. Unfortunately the place was closed today. Note the All Seeing Eye in the triangle.

Land of Buddha, at 128 MacDougal, specializes in the arts and crafts of Tibet: silver, gemstones, rugs, prayer wheels, clothing, silks, antiques, books, and more. Note the hexagram at bottom.

And now we're getting somewhere. Exiting the Washington Square Park area from the west, and headed south, we find one of my Manhattan hideouts. A favorite place to sit down with a book and a cigar on a sunny day: Sir Winston Churchill Square.

So small and cleverly situated you would never know it was there, this tiny (0.5-acre) neighborhood park  is missed by everyone except for those who live in the area. There is only one statue (or sculpture), and it is an interesting one.

An armillary is an astronomical device comprised of many moving rings and pieces that recreate the changes of the heavens. No moving parts on this sculpture, but note the astrological signs on the interior ring.

The view through its center.

A big part of the Giuliani Revolution in the 1990s was the largely successful elimination of the seedy businesses in the city, including the retailers of drug paraphernalia. The mayor didn't get them all, and needless to say nine years after he left office these stores are reappearing in numbers. There are about half a dozen of them practically next to each other on Sixth Avenue near Bleecker Street. Walking past one of them, my eye was caught by the unmistakable Square and Compasses. Halted by surprise and dread, I stopped in my tracks and took a look.

Belt buckles. Two at top left and another, upside down, at bottom right. All mixed together with glass bongs and that gas mask smoking device. Great, huh? (And no, the proprietors were not interested in removing the belt buckles.)

     

'At the bindery'

If you ever considered joining the Masonic Book Club, now is an opportune time. The 2009 book is late, but I'm told it is now at the bindery, the last step before shipping.

Members should receive the book, a reprint of Prof. John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy from 1798, in about three weeks.

A little more information is here.

This copy of Proofs of a Conspiracy is a fourth edition published in 1798. It is among the items displayed at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library at Lexington, Massachusetts in its current exhibit on anti-Masonry.

The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library (previously the National Heritage Museum) is now exhibiting Freemasonry Unmasked!: Anti-Masonic Collections in the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives. More information is forthcoming on The Magpie Mason, but in the meantime click here.

‘To debunk Masonic history’

     
The American Lodge of Research will meet Monday, March 29 at 8 p.m. in the French Ionic Room of the Grand Lodge of New York in Manhattan.


In addition to the regular business of the lodge, the brethren will hear “German Freemasons in the American Revolutionary War,” presented by  RW Bro. Uwe Hain.


Before this 346th Regular Communication, the brethren have the option of either getting together for dinner next door at the Limerick House, or – and this is new – visiting the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library. Normally the library would close at 4:30, but now, and by prior arrangement with the library (not the lodge), the brethren may visit after hours while waiting for the lodge to open. To contact the library, click here and take note of the phone number at the bottom of the page.


At the December meeting of ALR, Worshipful Master Pierre F. de Ravel d’Esclapon took us back to the late 18th century to examine the activities of French Masons in America, and this month we will look at German Masons of the same era. In his latest From the East message to the lodge, de Ravel d’Esclapon quotes ALR’s first Master, MW Charles Johnson, who defined the mission of this lodge: “to debunk Masonic history.” Here’s to another great year at ALR.
     

Flood

Like the Hermetic sciences before them, it is said the archives of Freemasonry are preserved in ways to protect them from both inundation and conflagration. A good thing, because some of us suffer from periodic flooding.

These photos were shot Sunday morning at the Valley of Northern New Jersey. The depth of the water here is between 24 and 30 inches. By the time the river across the street crests, there will be approximately five feet of water on the property.

‘On the road again’

W. Bro. Mohamad Yatim is going back on the road this spring, speaking at several lodges for the brethren’s enlightenment. Mohamad of course is Worshipful Master of Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge No. 10 in Westfield, New Jersey.

Wednesday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. – Lecture on “The Chamber of Reflection: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.” at Trenton Cyrus Lodge No. 5 (131 Burd St. in Pennington). Open to Apprentices and Fellows.

Monday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. – Lecture on “The Chamber of Reflection: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.” at Azure-Masada Lodge No. 22 (478 South Ave. in Cranford). Open to Apprentices and Fellows.

Wednesday, May 12 at 8 p.m. – Powerpoint presentation and lecture on the York Rite of Freemasonry, with emphasis on the Royal Arch Degree at Corinthian Chapter No. 57 (1012 Central Ave. in Westfield). The MEHP has designated the evening a “Bring a Master Mason Night” to show the brethren the vital importance of receiving the Royal Arch Degree.

Thursday, June 17 at 7:30 p.m. – Lecture on “The Chamber of Reflection: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.” at Mt. Zion Lodge (483 Middlesex Ave. in Metuchen). Open to Apprentices and Fellows.


I, for one, plan to catch the Chamber of Reflection talk. The Chamber is one of my favorite topics.

Masonic Week 2010: Masonic Stamp Club

Masonic Week 2010:

George Washington Masonic Stamp Club

I know it is not a new organization, yet I don’t recall ever seeing it represented at Masonic Week before, but there’s no denying it had a table in the registration area of our hotel: The George Washington Masonic Stamp Club.

I collected stamps as a kid, finding it a great way to study history and admire the various fine arts of engraving and printing revealed in serious philately. To this day, I have albums upon albums of First Day Covers and individual stamps.

The club meets only twice annually. In February, on the Sunday after Washington’s birthday (Feb. 22) or on his birthday when it falls on a Sunday, the brethren convene to confer the “Master of Philately Degree” at the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. And they meet on the Saturday before Labor Day at the Baltimore Philatelic Exposition at the Marriott Hotel in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
 
Upcoming meetings are: Saturday, September 4 in Maryland; and Sunday, February 27, 2011 in Virginia. I admit these events are a little outside my usual orbit, so I doubt I’ll ever be able to attend, but this didn’t stop me from signing up for a Life Membership, which cost less than two Manhattans at the hotel bar and affords me the chance to marry my long neglected hobby with my appreciation for Masonic culture.
 
The club publishes Masonic First Day Covers, Washington Birthday Covers, Inauguration Covers, and other special event covers as desired. So we’ll see how it goes. Could be fun.