Freemasonry's Material Culture
Preserving for tomorrow that which we hold dear today
It seems that I am often confronted with opportunities to think about our Masonic things. Those items that were once held dear by our Brothers, but are neglected or discarded now that our Brothers have passed away.
Some years ago MW Sam Roberts became so concerned by seeing Masonic Aprons in junk stores that he had the idea to create a beautiful Masonic Apron Memorial which could respectfully house discarded aprons forever. That Memorial is now complete, and my Lodge has the rather unofficial task of keeping an eye on it.
My own Past Master’s apron is now just under 90 years old. A truly beautiful jewel that was discarded, then rescued from an online marketplace.
My daughter called one day from a flea market. A seller there had a number of pieces of Lodge furniture for sale. I bought it all and put it back to use. One major piece is now being used in a Masonic Temple in King County. Very soon the Grand Lodge of Washington will be laying a cornerstone for Toledo High School. While doing so, we will utilize what we believe to be the Master’s podium from Toledo Lodge, a Lodge that lost its existence many years ago. A podium rescued from that same flea market.
Not long ago, a friend from work called my wife. She was at an estate sale and had run across a Masonic Gavel. I asked her to buy it, without seeing it first, and despite its extremely high price. When I received it I discovered that it was an ivory gavel, a gift from a Lodge in Alaska to one of our Past Grand Masters.
Just last week I was in a Lodge meeting. The Master opened it up for anyone who had questions for me. One of the Brothers from a Lodge that has recently sold its building stood up and explained that the Lodge had a lot of material possessions, now in storage. He asked what I would think if the Lodge just had a big yard sale to sell it all.
These are just some of the situations involving Masonic items that I’ve encountered in my years as a Mason. There are others I’m sure, but these loom large in my mind as I write this article.
The brief answer is:
No. We should not sell our Masonic possessions at a yard sale.
Emphatically No.
These things are treasures (or were treasures to a Brother in the past) and need to be treasured.
Masonic history is written in our books. Masonic history is also wrapped up in those items that make up our material possessions. All of this history needs to be preserved.
None of those Masonic things that were treasured by a Freemason should ever be thrown into a junk pile. We can do much better, and doing better won’t even amount to any work.
Things in Lodge rooms break or just wear out. If we sell a Masonic Temple the solution is not to sell the furnishings at a junk sale. What we should do is make it known to the Fraternity at large what we have available, and distribute those things to Lodges that need them. The piece I mentioned that is now in a Lodge Room in King County found that home less than a day after I bought it. It was badly needed.
Likewise, items belonging to individual Masons shouldn’t just be discarded or sent off to a junk store. If there are books that a Lodge can’t use they should be given to Lodge members who like to read about and study Freemasonry. I’ve received a number of wonderful volumes that way.
Things like rings, gavels, pins, and coins, all of these things can be given to young and excited members of the Lodge. What better way to pass on tradition than to give a new Master Mason a ring from a valued Mason of the past?
In Washington we are lucky, we possess an apron memorial that is large enough it will easily hold all the orphaned aprons we encounter over the next hundred or more years. If such isn’t available in a jurisdiction though, a Lodge could easily create an appropriate repository for its own orphaned aprons, right within its own Masonic Temple.
I think that solutions for passing material items down within our Fraternity are extremely easy to come up with, and will serve to protect our historical artifacts far into the future. That is what we should be doing, to assist our Brothers of today, and to honor our Brothers of yesterday.
Please allow me a moment to say Thank You to all of you who are a part of this community named Emeth.
To all of you who read the posts, know that I am deeply honored by your choosing to spend your time here. To everyone who participates in the discussions, know that the wisdom and insight you share is helping a lot of Masons, and a lot of Lodges. Finally, to everyone who holds a paid subscription to Emeth, my profound Thanks. I truly believe in this project, and you make it possible.
As with every Sunday evening, we will have a gathering for all those with a paid Emeth subscription over Zoom tonight. I regret that I will not be able to attend, as I’ll be joining the MW Grand Master of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington and Jurisdiction at our annual Unity March, but I’ll be thinking about all of you who I usually get to talk with on Sunday evenings.
Heck, one never knows, you might enjoy having a break from hearing my voice!
Please do join in if you are able, I find these calls to always be interesting. Login information for the call will go out at 3:00 PM, and the gathering will begin at 7:30 PM Pacific Time.
This weekend is proving to be a full weekend of unity between the two Grand Lodges of Washington.
Today the annual outdoor Master Mason Degree Conferral at the Masonic Park took place. It was conferred by Prince Hall, and was a Degree that I think will live on in memory for a great many years to come.
Of course it was raining like heck all day, so sitting in an outdoor Lodge room for a couple of hours while it was dumping on our heads might be a bit strange, but it was awesome nevertheless, and I think that right at 80 of us braved the storm.
Just in case you missed it:
If you enjoyed this issue of Emeth, will you consider forwarding it to your Lodge Brothers?
There has been quite a few times where masonic items were literally left on our doorstep. Some of it was extraordinary. We’ve also been contacted by family with items as you said found literally in attics and closets. We’ve always tried to find the proper homes for the items. Some we contacted the home lodge of the brother and passed on the items. Others, like aprons, we’ve provided to grand lodge. Some items of little intrinsic value we’ve offered to brothers to take for themselves to cherish.
Personally, I’ve made every effort to inform my daughter what I want to happen when I make that trip from whose borne no traveler returns. It’s a hard conversation for her, but it needs to be done. Don’t let your cherished memories end up on eBay.
I agree that Masonic artifacts should be disposed with dignity and care for all of the reasons cited. I also believe that, for some Brothers, the aura surrounding such material things underlies a quest for material things. We all know of Brothers who have advanced through the chairs or have advocated for an award in part for the self congratulatory purpose of wearing a fancy apron or a special lapel pin.
Yes, treasure our artifacts that have fallen into disuse. But long before that guard the integrity of first putting them to use.