Livingston Masonic Library |
The Empire State Mason Magazine |
The following article appeared in The Empire State Mason Magazine, an official publication of The Grand Lodge of the State of New York. To subscribe to the magazine, or to read more articles of Masonic interest, visit the ESM web site.
The Empire State Mason - Spring 2007 (p. 30)
by RW Richard A. Vang, Trustee
You've just seen a prince walk by. A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working, unappreciated prince.
A pal, you understand? A good companion. Always for his boys.Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, Act 2, Part 5
There have been many great promoters of Freemasonry over the centuries. Men of eloquence, vigor and stateliness have sold our Craft to the non-Masonic public in immeasurable ways. It is often hard to quantify the impact that a Masonic presence in a community has had until it is gone. When these Masonic salesmen pass to the Celestial Lodge, it seems that even the broken pillar is not an adequate symbol for their absence. A more fitting memorial might be the image of a gaping hole – in both Masonry and the community.
The salesmen for our Fraternity are not always flesh-and-blood human beings. Many times it is a brick-and-mortar building. When we close and sell off (or worse, see demolished) an old lodge building, all that is left behind is a gaping hole in our community fabric and in our Masonic hearts. Recently, one of our Masonic salesman passed away with little notice, but followed by sadness.
In 1987, a Masonic lodge exhibit was established at The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown. It was located in a small room above the Print Shop. Lodge furniture and artifacts were requested from and loaned by several lodges around the state, and a lodge room reflecting the post-Morgan period was set up for all visitors to see. A barrier was erected so that visitors could view the room as a whole, but not enter it, thereby protecting the artifacts from mishandlng and theft.
Many Brothers recall with fondness their visit to the austere but beautiful lodge room, often accompanied by “profanes” or family members, explaining with pride the complex character of Masonry. However, this lodge exhibit could only be accessed by a small flight of stairs, and these proved to be the exhibit’s downfall. Fearing for the safety of visitors and concerned over it’s accessiblity by elderly Brothers, The Farmers’ Museum closed the exhibit in 1997.
The Brothers who lived in Cooperstown and the Otsego-Schoharie District still wanted to see a Masonic presence at the Museum. Fraternal societies were an important part of the fabric of village life in 1840’s upstate New York. It was recognized at that time that Masons once met in “Bump Tavern,” a building which was moved from Greene County and erected on the grounds of the Museum. The Brothers and Katie Boardman, an employee of the museum and a specialist in 19th-century fraternal orders, sought to re-establish a Masonic presence by creating a “travelling lodge” exhibit on the upper floor of the tavern, which opened in 1999.
The exhibit consisted of a chest filled with the furniture necessary to set up a temporary lodge room, as was done in the heyday of the tavern itself. The chest was reproduced by the museum from an artifact held at The Museum of Our National heritage in Lexington, MA. Along with the ritual furniture, there were laminated images culled from various books on Masonry depicting famous Masons, tracing boards and other Masonic artifacts. It was set up on weekends when indivdual Masons from the area were on hand to volunteer as exhibit interpreters. In addition, W Erik Strohl, Past Master of Otsego Lodge in Cooperstown, wrote and presented an interpetation of the exhibit as part of his class work as a student in the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies. His interpretation was used as guide for the volunteers docents.
At the same time, the Brothers of the Otsego-Schoharie and Delaware Masonic Districts beagn to hold their annual Master’s Investiture Ceremony in the tavern. At the first event, Ms. Boardman handed out copies of old Masonic songs. She accompanied the chorus of Brothers on a melodeon, a vintage portable foot-pedal driven keyboard. Together they recorded a couple of old tunes. It was a great evening. The May event has been attended by either a Grand Master or Deputy Grand Master every year since.
Unfortunately, new administrative plans are being followed at The Farmers’ Museum and the Fenimore Art Museum, where all the lodge artifacts from the original exhibit were being stored. Since the museums were paying for storage and insurance on artifcats that they neither owned or used, they recently divested themselves of the items. Library Trustees Manfred Liehs, Bill Thomas and I, in conjunction with the lodge secretaries, all helped to ensure that the artifacts were all safely returned to the appropriate lodge owners. In many cases, items were delivered to the lodges through the generosity of the museum.
In addition, the travelling lodge exhibit has been discontinued as well. All the items in the replica chest have been returned or turned over to the Livingston Library, along with photos of the exhibit and other documentation. And this past year, the Museum, facing troubled fincancial times like many organizations, began to charge the Brothers for the use of the tavern for the Investiture Ceremony. 2006 may have been the final year for this fine event.
I’m not sure what the great lesson in this story is, or if it is just too obvious to repeat. Perhaps this story just needed to be told. If nothing else, I guess ir serves as a reminder to all of us that we should never let our public relations efforts fail us. A suggestion from this is to try and find a place in your community where you could set up a similar exhibit, perhaps at a local museum, gallery space, or historical society. Masons are not “nobody’s,” and we should never forget that.
If you would like to help the Livingston Library, please contact RW Tom Savini at (212) 337-6620, or through the web site at www.nymasoniclibrary.org. As always, remember that your donation to the Livingston Masonic Library is tax deductible.
©2007, The Empire State Mason Magazine.