Mastermason.com Forums Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Public Masonic Discussions > Masonic Discussion Board
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - So what is in your CLOSET
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

So what is in your CLOSET

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
CAMB.MASON View Drop Down
Quarryman
Quarryman
Avatar

Joined: December/23/2008
Location: cambridge,mass.
Status: Offline
Points: 2062
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CAMB.MASON Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: So what is in your CLOSET
    Posted: December/03/2014 at 8:42am
Dear Brothers:   I have posted this before, but being a curator of a Masonic collection, my soap box is always at the ready. 
        So again I ask you, what is in your closet.
 
                Masonic lodges, and buildings, always have a bunch of junk no one wants to look at, or just overlooked.  It sits there for years, decades in drawers, closets, boxes etc. just sitting there waiting for someone to look at it again.  It DOES not matter what it is, paperwork, aprons, jewels, books, costumes, etc,  just junk sitting there, forgotten.  Worst, many lodges and bodies throw it away, its only junk right?
                 This year alone here in Massachusetts we have lost five Masonic buildings.  NO not lodges, WHOLE buildings.  Some due to taxes, maintenance, can not afford, size and worst fire.
                   When ever a lodge merges, it looses its history, relics, items, artifacts, junk.  When ever a lodge or building cleans house it looses another piece of its history.  When a Temple or building is sold, we all loose our history.  Yes my brother, even you from Georgia, or Texas, or Washington State, Canada, even in England, your history is also my history.  It is all our history.
                     So take some time, look around, clean, preserve, document, photo, display, store, and save your history and mine.  Clean, Look and Find those artifacts.  We loose too much.
                      My soap box is old, but still works, so Thank you for your time.  Maybe one person can save and help, it takes only one brother.
I remain Fraternally Yours:

Curator & Historian
Cambridge Masonic Temple Cambridge, Massachusetts



Back to Top
Caution1010 View Drop Down
Moderator
Moderator
Avatar
Bro. Never Give Up

Joined: November/16/2010
Location: 127.0.0.1
Status: Offline
Points: 2677
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Caution1010 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/03/2014 at 1:01pm
My lodge lost its building years ago due to condemnation by the county.

I am not sure what became of the relics of the building.

It quite frankly makes me sad
I: 10/1/10
P: 12/3/10
R: 12/31/10

PHA-AL

"You can't trust those fellow-crafts...buncha rogues and murderers!"
Back to Top
js584 View Drop Down
Quarryman
Quarryman


Joined: July/07/2013
Location: indianapolis
Status: Offline
Points: 67
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js584 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/03/2014 at 2:50pm
I am currently working on a project with our county museum.  The History of Putnam County Freemasonry will be the main exhibit for six months.  I am working with 4 blue Lodges, 3 Eastern Star chapters and a York Rite Lodge.  The old and dusty stuff will be seeing daylight for the first time in many many years, I am really looking forward to seeing what is buried in the archives, should be very interesting.
Back to Top
cemab4y View Drop Down
Quarryman
Quarryman
Avatar

Joined: October/31/2007
Location: Fairfax VA
Status: Offline
Points: 1267
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cemab4y Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/03/2014 at 5:21pm
I would love for lodges to recycle some of their items, that they cannot use anymore. I was in Moscow (Russia) some years ago, and Phoenix lodge #17, did not have a full complement of masonic regalia. They did not even have enough aprons for the officers and visitors.

We need to set up a way to move our unused masonic items to lodges that are not able to obtain their own.

How about it?
Charles E. Martin

Alexandria, VA

Bowling Green Lodge 73, Bowling Green KY (GL of KY, F&AM)

Alexandria VA Scottish Rite Bodies (AASR, Southern Jurisdiction, USA)
Back to Top
MarkMaster View Drop Down
Quarryman
Quarryman
Avatar

Joined: February/14/2008
Location: Alabama
Status: Offline
Points: 744
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MarkMaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/05/2014 at 1:09pm
My Mother Lodge went dark some 15 years ago (small town, dying membership, etc.). A few years ago, I got a call from a young man whose father was WM at the time of closing -- he had a garage rack filled with items from the Lodge and asked me if I wanted them. After checking with our GL and getting permission to keep the items, I moved them to my garage, where I began inventorying the lot. Interesting stuff -- from handcarved ritual objects to sashes obviously handsewn from cotton-sacking; a Secretary's safe that weighs around 200 pounds was filled with petitions, inter-Lodge communication letters, attendance registers, et al.

The coolest thing I was able to do as a result of saving this material is to find a petition from 1954 from a Brother I knew well (when he was an older gentleman), which I was able to have framed and presented to his grandson -- a member of our Lodge.


"Si apis, sis apis."


Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 11.10
Copyright ©2001-2017 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.141 seconds.