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National Heritage Museum: Masonic Exhibit Opens June 1 2002
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NATIONAL HERITAGE MUSEUM
33 Marrett Road
Lexington, MA 02421
781/861-6559
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media contact:
Linda Patch 781/862-6541
To Build and Sustain: Freemasons in American
Community
Opens at the National Heritage Museum, June 1,
2002
New Long-Term Exhibition to Shed Light on Freemasonry
The National Heritage Museum
looks to broaden public awareness of the principles of Freemasonry
and its history with the opening of a new long-term exhibition, "To
Build and Sustain: Freemasons in American Community." The exhibition is
designed to explain what Freemasonry is and why men have continued to
join the fraternity throughout American history. "To Build and Sustain"
will open June 1, 2002.
Freemasonry's long history in America will be presented in an
accessible and imaginative way. A series of display areas within the
gallery will be designed to represent various American buildings create
a town-like quality. Visitors will travel through the town's "streets"
and "buildings" learning American history, meeting historic Freemasons,
and discovering their work in America's communities.
"The buildings in the exhibition physically demonstrate the
stonemason's craft and symbolically represent the concept of Freemasons
working together to build community by making individual men better."
said Mark Tabbert, Curator of Masonic and Fraternal Collections at the
Museum and curator of the exhibition. "Visitors will be surprised to
discover that behind our ever-changing history and community lies a
permanent Masonic landscape continually echoing the fraternity's
symbols, tools, and principles. Visitors will come to understand the
craft of Freemasonry is a system of morality constructed by symbols and
taught through allegory and rituals."
The initial section of "To Build and Sustain" is divided into three
parts that explain the origins of Freemasonry, its role in the American
Revolution and the early Republic. The first part will show three
sources that help create Freemasonry in the early 1700s, Judeo-Christian
religion, medieval stonemason guilds, and the English Enlightenment.
The second part will explain Freemasonry's development in the American
colonies and its attraction to men like Benjamin Franklin. The third
part will explain how Masonic and Enlightenment principles were used to
establish the United States, with Brother George Washington's role in
laying the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
After the Anti-Masonic Period of the 1820s and 30s, the exhibition's
second section provides reasons why men join the fraternity to the
present day. Divided into seven different display cases or "buildings,"
each provides a historical and individual reason for membership.
Self-improvement, social, family and community service activities among
others have all attracted men. The Masonic principles that supported
these activities also encouraged Masons to build and support new Masonic
organizations such as the Shriners, Order of the Eastern Star and
DeMolay for Boys. Other Americans used the fraternity as a model to
build Masonic-like organizations such as the Moose, Elks, or Knights of
Columbus. The objects displayed in each "building" also illustrate the
consistency of Masonic principles through time, from an 1870s Masonic
charity account book to the disbursement of $3 million collected by
Freemasons for the September 11, New York Relief Fund.
"Freemasonry is the common ancestor of most American voluntary
associations. Showing a progression from Masonic to present-day
organizations allows visitors to see this lineage and move forward or
backward in time," explained Tabbert. "So if a visitor understands
Masonic networks in 1800, they might understand why business and
professional associations developed in the 1870s, which, in turn,
developed into such clubs as Rotary International in the 1900s.
Conversely, visitors who are familiar with today's Rotary may see how
local businessmen began organizing clubs in the 1870s, and how
Freemasonry's has provided such opportunities means since the
1700s."
The exhibition's concluding section provides information on how the
today's Freemasons sustain modern American communities. Divided into
three display areas they echo Freemasonry's tenets of brotherly love,
relief, and truth as they show Freemasons supporting religious and
racial toleration, providing health care and disaster relief, while
funding colleges and scholarships and building libraries and museums
such as the National Heritage Museum. Through this work the visitor may
understand that Freemasonry's purpose is to make "good men better," who,
in turn, create, build and sustain good communities.
Throughout the exhibition will be various interactive and "touchable"
ways for visitors to understand Masonic principles, symbols, and
history. At the exhibition's conclusion will be a computer interactive
that encourages visitors to explore detailed information on Masonic
activities and information.
The museum has gathered important Masonic artifacts from more than 35
states, Canada and Europe, that range from 1584 to 2001. Among the 175
artifacts and images to be displayed are: the trowel used by George
Washington to lay the cornerstone of the US Capitol, a 1830 broadside
from Nauvoo Illinois announcing a play at the Masonic Hall in support of
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church and President Kennedy's
Knights of Columbus membership card.
An important decorative arts piece will be loaned from Colonial
Williamsburg. The Bucktrout Masonic Chair, made by Benjamin Bucktrout,
between 1769-1775, was probably used by Peyton Randolph when he served
as Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Virginia in 1774. Randolph was
also the president on of the Continental Congress in 1775. The chair
has never before been exhibited in New England, and has only been on
loan in New York City, Minneapolis and Los Angles. The bulk of the
exhibit, however, will concentrate on artifacts from lesser-known
Brothers who did unheralded but good work within their communities.
Exhibition Details
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