‘The ALR’s new clothes’

     

Just another reminder that The American Lodge of Research will be on the road in two weeks, paying a visit to West Point Lodge 877 in the Hudson Valley. That’s Thursday, December 1 at seven o’clock. The lodge is right outside the Military Academy.

All Master Masons are welcome, so please let us know you’re coming by signing up here. Attire is suit and tie business casual with apron. Feel free to bring your own regalia, but I’m sure West Point Lodge will have aprons available for you.

Speaking of aprons, I am tasked with bringing our officers’ regalia to this meeting so, for now, I’ve got them inside an acid-free box in my subterranean climate controlled vault. The ALR recently purchased these aprons from Macoy. Great stuff. Expensive, but the quality definitely is there. Have a look:

This piece of embroidery is located on the apron flap.

Our new jewels did not come from Macoy, which is why they’re smallish and suspended from plain ropes. (We are a lodge of Masonic research and education, so there isn’t any pomp in our activities. Even our installation of officers leans toward the perfunctory.) The photo above shows superfluous pieces that came with the set. We don’t have Stewards, a Chaplain, a Marshal, or a Tiler.

Although sometimes a Chaplain wouldn’t be a bad idea.

See you December first!

    

‘New Dunbar biography’

    

A biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar was published earlier this year, and its author will discuss his subject in a lecture next Tuesday at New York Society Library. Dunbar (click here) was a Mason and a highly regarded poet at the turn of the century. From the publicity:

Gene Andrew Jarrett

The Life and Times

of a Caged Bird

The New York Society Library

Tuesday, November 22

6 p.m.

Live and online.

Free and open

to the public.

Register here.

On the 150th anniversary of his birth, a definitive new biography of a pivotal figure in American literary history.

A major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African-American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emancipation. In this definitive biography, the first full scale life of Dunbar in half a century, Gene Andrew Jarrett offers a revelatory account of a writer whose Gilded Age celebrity as the “poet laureate of his race” hid the private struggles of a man who, in the words of his famous poem, felt like a “caged bird“ that sings.

Jarrett tells the fascinating story of how Dunbar, born during Reconstruction to formerly enslaved parents, excelled against all odds to become an accomplished and versatile artist. A prolific and successful poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and Broadway librettist, he also was a friend of such luminaries as Frederick Douglass and Orville and Wilbur Wright. But while audiences across the United States and Europe flocked to enjoy his literary readings, Dunbar privately bemoaned shouldering the burden of race and catering to minstrel stereotypes to earn fame and money. Inspired by his parents’ survival of slavery, but also agitated by a turbulent public marriage,  beholden to influential benefactors, and helpless against his widely reported bouts of tuberculosis and alcoholism, he came to regard his racial notoriety as a curse as well as a blessing before dying at the age of only thirty-three.

Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and generously illustrated, this biography presents the richest, most detailed, and most nuanced portrait yet of Dunbar and his work, transforming how we understand the astonishing life and times of a central figure in American literary history.

Gene Andrew Jarrett is the Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University. He is also the co-editor of The Collected Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar and The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

     

I learned of this book and this event only a few hours ago, so I can’t say if this new biography reports Dunbar’s Masonic activities, but I asked the author about it via Twitter, and I’ll update this if I receive a reply. Dunbar was a great poet, so Masonic history or no, this speaking engagement will be worthwhile.

     

‘From the Attic of the Grand Lodge’

     

From the Attic

of the Grand Lodge

No, that’s not a horror movie about the “grand lodge” in New Jersey. 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.

     

‘LaRocco is library’s new leader’

    

Michael LaRocco

Michael LaRocco is the new Executive Director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York, the Grand Secretary announced today. From the statement:

I’m sure many of you know Bro. Michael from his appearances as a presenter in our Library Lecture Series and in his very active presence in the Metropolitan Region. Michael is a Past Master of Lynbrook-Massapequa Lodge 822, as well as the current Assistant Grand Lecturer for the Nassau District. He is a member of the Holy Royal Arch, the Cryptic Council, the Knight Templars, and the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, NMJ. He is a Past Most Wise Master of Long Island Chapter of Rose Croix, a founding member the Magus Guild of the Valley of Rockville Centre, and the Ritual Director for the Valley of Rockville Centre. He received the Meritorious Service Award from the Council of Deliberation and was elected to be coroneted a 33° Mason, to take place in August 2023.

The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Library and Museum wants to “Bring the Library to the Brothers.” As Michael has extensive professional communications expertise and is an excellent presenter, he is well suited for leading  this role in your Lodges and Districts.

He joins the Library staff of Bro. Alex Vastola, our Director of Collection Services, and Ms. Ratirat Osiri, our Curator. Please join me in welcoming him.

Congratulations Bro. Michael! Enjoy!

(It’s a dream job for me, but what do I know about running a library?)

     

‘MOVPER @ the GWMNM’

    

We who attended the Scottish Freemasonry in America Symposium last weekend at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia were given a tour of the museum and other spaces in the building. This edition of The Magpie Mason is a sidebar to the main coverage of that event because I can’t resist sharing some photos of the Grotto exhibit.

What’s the Grotto? Surely you jest! Formally known as the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, it is—as the name infers—the goofy side of Freemasonry in the United States. And elsewhere, actually. They’re establishing Grottoes in Mexico and other points south.

Anyway, here are my shots of the tidily curated MOVPER exhibit.

Nazir Grotto Marching Band uniform on loan from Bernard Mitchell,
Pasts Grand Monarch. Made by Drunkenbrod Tailors of Canton, Ohio, ca. 1940.

Great Mokanna costume, ca. 1960.
If you know, you know.

And, at Fredericksburg Lodge 4 in Fredericksburg:

     
     

‘Scottish Freemasonry Symposium, Part I’

     

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 was very well represented last month at the Scottish Freemasonry in America Symposium hosted at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. Two of our Past Masters, Bob and me; our incoming Secretary, Erich; one former Tyler (Jersey spelling), Michael; and other New Jersey Masons (Paul, David, Ray) enjoyed the three-day celebration of the historical and cultural significances Scotland and its Freemasons have impressed on the United States.

Things started Friday, November 4, the 270th anniversary of the initiation into Freemasonry of George Washington in The Lodge at Fredericksburg. The lodge then met inside John Jones’ tavern, located around the corner from the current Fredericksburg Lodge 4. The brethren are at home in a charming brick structure dating to 1816. As one would expect, the lodge building could serve as a destination Masonic museum, its walls and square footage displaying all kinds of story-telling treasures, from framed aprons and portraits to furniture and many mementos.

Presented to Fredericksburg 4

by George Washington 285

in NYC on November 4, 1920.

Two lodge rooms are housed inside. The one typically in use is downstairs in an addition to the building dating to the 1950s; the other, used only once annually to keep it legally in Masonic use, is upstairs. Ascending the staircase is like traveling back in time. The Old Lodge Room at the top of the stairs is intimate, creaky, and antique in a way that would make even the most frivolous “knife and fork Mason” pause in appreciation for its atmosphere. In the northwest corner is a wall safe outfitted with a glass facade to allow viewing of artifacts, but they have been removed for preservation. (Nothing precious, really. Just that Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington reproduced on the dollar bill.) On November 20, 1824, Lafayette visited and was made an honorary member inside this room. The floors are said to be imbued with the blood of Union soldiers from when the building was commandeered for use as a military hospital during the Civil War.

One very notable connection to New Jersey is the lodge’s reverence for Bro. Hugh Mercer, a native of Scotland who served under Washington as a general in the Revolutionary War. He died from wounds suffered during the Battle of Princeton, and the County of Mercer and Mercer Lodge 5 are among his namesakes. He was a Mason of The Lodge at Fredericksburg, and not far from the lodge stands the General Hugh Mercer Monument, a larger-than-life bronze atop a massive stone plinth, erected by the federal government in 1906, memorializing him. We sojourning Masons walked in a procession to this statue where W. Bro. Shelby Chandler, now the lodge Tiler (Virginia spelling), presented a detailed biography of the hero to whom our nation owes so much.

‘You Masons are all goin’ to hell!’ hollered one woman
driving past us, prompting much laughter.

En route to the statue, we stopped at the oldest Masonic cemetery in the Western Hemisphere. Established by the lodge in 1784, it is the final resting place of approximately 270 Masons and their families. It is very much part of Fredericksburg Lodge’s life, and although many of the headstones show their age through worn, illegible inscriptions and broken pieces, the cemetery is not a neglected graveyard, and the grounds are maintained by the brethren themselves.

Presidents Washington and Monroe in miniature portraits.

Back at the lodge, our large party was seated for a sumptuous feast to restore our strength before a special communication of the lodge. 

A word about lapel pins: We guests were presented with two by our hosts at Fredericksburg Lodge. Big ones. On the left is the lodge’s 270th anniversary (1752-2022) pin. The design is half the Scottish flag on the left with half the Fredericksburg flag on the right. The pin at right is—well, I guess I know what I’ll be wearing on Washington’s birthday! It unquestionably is the largest lapel pin I’ve ever owned; in length and width it exceeds a U.S. dollar coin. Not the lame Sacagawea coin, but, like a Morgan silver dollar! It’s hard to get a good photo of them.

It was the Official Visit of Most Worshipful James Winfield Golladay, Jr., Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. As such, it was a long meeting thanks to numerous introductions and greetings of many individuals and groups of eminent Masons. When the Left-Handed Past Grand Pursuivants were asked to present themselves west of the altar, I attempted to sneak out the Outer Door. Alas, the lodge was closely tiled (New York spelling).

Printed in 1668 in Cambridge, this KJV is the Bible
in use when Washington took his obligations.

In case you were wondering, yes, the King James Bible on which Washington placed his hands for his Masonic obligations was present. Printed in 1668 in Cambridge, England, it is safeguarded by the lodge and is displayed, open to Ecclesiastes 12, inside a translucent case. No flash photography is permitted; fortunately our smart phones feature cameras that can capture images almost regardless of lighting conditions.

All of that would have sufficed for a full Masonic weekend, but the conference that drew us to Virginia began the following morning. More on that to come in an upcoming edition of The Magpie Mason.

     

‘Next February in Alexandria’

    

Courtesy GWMNM

I’m still working on several editions of The Magpie Mason to recap the terrific conference last weekend at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, and I am reminded of the next big event there next February. In fact, registration is open now for the cornerstone re-dedication on February 20, just one of several celebratory happenings in commemoration of the Memorial’s centenary.

Courtesy GWMNM

Click here to see the itinerary.

There will be meetings and tours Friday through Sunday, and your lodge (if you plan ahead) may hold a tiled meeting in one of the Memorial’s lodge rooms! On Monday the 20th, there will be a parade and the cornerstone re-dedication.

Mention of this parade during the events of last week caught my attention. Generally, I am not a parade marcher, but that’s in terms of, say, a Masonic contingent in a St. Patrick’s Day parade or other civic display. This will be Freemasons only on the march like it’s 1740s Dublin or something! For some reason that’s different to my mind, so I believe I will don my new apron (blue borders with rounded flap and edges) and a Past Master jewel (TKS!).

We had a procession from Fredericksburg Lodge to a historical site in town last Friday when some clod in a passing car shouted we Masons are going to hell. The sight of this procession will give them something to howl about!

From the publicity:

All grand lodges, lodges, Masonic groups, and Freemasons in amity with the Grand Lodge of Virginia may participate in the Parade from historic Old Town Alexandria up to the Memorial’s beautiful grounds. The Parade will step off at 1 p.m. The Re-dedication Ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. All individuals attending the events of February 20 should register here. Those who register and attend will receive a special poster celebrating the event.

The Memorial’s traditional Washington’s Birthday Gala will be held on Wednesday, February 22. This elegant formal event, as always, will include a reception in Memorial Hall, entertainment in the Theater, and a Gala Banquet in Grand Masonic Hall.

Click here to read more about the events planned. And seriously, get your lodge or chapter or whatever to book a lodge room for a meeting. And petition the Grand Architect for favorable weather!

     

‘UGLE debuts Craftcast’

    

Magpie coverage of the weekend’s “Scottish Freemasons in America” conference in Virginia is coming soon, but in the meantime, here’s news from the English.

The United Grand Lodge of England announced the debut today of Craftcast: The Freemasons Podcast. Hosts Shaun Butler, James Dalton, and Stephen Whatley discuss “all things Freemasonry” and will welcome guests from throughout the UGLE.

Click here.

UPDATE:

     

‘Help preserve Masonic history’

    

CFCR

There exists an opportunity for you to preserve artifacts, regalia, ephemera, and other pieces of fraternal history. Indiana University’s Center for Fraternal Collections and Research put out a call last week for your donations of such items.

The idea is for you to contact CFCR here, and discuss the pieces that might be maddening clutter to you, but could prove to be essential for scholarly understanding of America’s vast history of fraternalism.