Whether you’re planning your next road trip or wanting to deepen your education and connection with Freemasonry, the US is home to some amazingly well kept Masonic museums and libraries to help you on your journey. Home to vintage artifacts, old photographs, and interesting books, these institutions are able to preserve the history of our great fraternal organization. We’ve compiled the top from across the US that are sure to impress.
The Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania, a charitable arm of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, resides in the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia, constructed in 1873. The Masonic Temple itself is known as one of the great wonders of the Masonic world, filled to the brim with some of the finest artifacts of Freemasonry and a great connection to the past by outwardly displaying Masonic traditions and values.
The Museum and Library houses thousands of texts and objects relating to the history of the Fraternity and the founding of the United States. The importance of collecting and cataloging seminal works in the history of Freemasonry has remained a focus of the institution since its inception. One of the Library’s prized possessions is a book printed in Basel in 1489. It is really two books bound together, one by St. Augustine on the Trinity, and the other by Robert Holkot on the Apocryphal Book The Wisdom of Solomon.The next time you’re in the area, be sure to book a tour! Or, you can also access their online resource and lending service here.
2. Grand Lodge, A.F. & A.M., of Virginia Library, Museum & Historical Foundation
The Grand Lodge of Virginia Library, Museum & Historical Foundation preserves, collects and restores the Masonic records and artifacts of Virginia’s Masonic history. The museum is rich with portraits, Masonic regalia, anniversary commemorative items of Grand Lodge and local Lodges, furniture, glassware, porcelain, stoneware, and aprons.
Equally as extensive, the library also houses 8,000 volumes of Masonic works representing Virginia’s Masonic history, U.S. and overseas Masonic history, Masonic history in general and histories of local Virginia Lodges. The library is also available to help with genealogical research by providing Masonic membership information about Masons in Virginia!
Founded in 1979, the Michigan Masonic museum and Library is home to over 6,000 photographs, fine officer jewels, antique Masonic aprons, charts, and carpets, and the largest and most comprehensive collection of rare books on Masonry.
Within their rare book collection, about 600 volumes of the publications came from the collection of James Fairbairn Smith, a well-known Masonic scholar and publisher from Detroit. Some volumes even date back to the 1700s! Other pieces that call the Michigan Masonic Museum and Library home include archives of the Grand Lodge, which traces of Masonry back to when Lewis Cass was the first Grand Master in 1826.
The library also lends our books to the public as well as organizes presentations on some of the artifacts on display at the Museum. Sounds like a great lodge outing to us!
As one of the world’s foremost repositories of Masonic books and artifacts, the Livingston Masonic Library has over 50,000 artifacts and 60,000 writings available for visitors and researchers alike to observe.
Founded in the 1850s to house the books and records held by the Grand Lodge of New York, the library expanded in the late 19th century with the addition of the collection of Robert Morris, Masonic poet laureate, and continued to grow through donations and acquisitions of new books relating to Freemasonry. Since then, the library has become the premiere center for Masonic research, a status validated in 1983 with the achievement of a charter from the New York State Board of Regents as the Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge. Better yet, the library is also home to the Livingston Library Lecture Series, which is available to watch online here.
Over the years, the Minnesota Masonic Charities and the new Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center has greatly influenced Minnesota history and the lives of its residents through Freemasonry.
Serving as a working tribute to the concepts and contributions of Freemasonry, the center provides the public with an intimate and elegant destination for performances and scholarship pursuits and features a 443-seat auditorium with jewel-box theatre, in addition to their Masonic museum and library. The Colonel James B. Ladd Museum offers 3,700 SF of state-of-the-art space to share this rare collection through interactive displays.
Six galleries showcase the history of Masonry in Minnesota, the factual and fanciful histories of Freemasonry and the extensive charitable works of the Fraternity. The best part? Admission is free.
Opened in 1884, the Iowa Masonic Library was the first Masonic library building in the world. Originally, the building was supposed to last one hundred years, but due to an influx of daily traffic and attention, the building was demolished and rebuilt in 1955 into the structure that stands today.
Regarded as one of the best Masonic Research facilities in the world, the library houses over 150,000 volumes of rare Masonic books for the “serious” researcher, and a circulating collection for the more “casual” reader. There also several special collections including: A.E. Waite Collection of esoteric and occult science, Dr. Arthur W. Erskine Collection of original papers and materials in the field of X-ray technology, Joseph A. Walkes Collection of Prince Hall Masonry, and the Harvey Collection of Landscape Architecture.
In addition to their vast written works, the museum houses Masonic decorative arts, regalia, equipment, artifacts, medallions and jewels from around the world, a collection of Lincoln memorabilia, and a civil war battle flag. There is also a three-paneled painting entitled, “The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry”, the only known Masonic painting of Iowa artist Grant Wood, a member of Mount Hermon Lodge No. 263 of Cedar Rapids.
The House of the Temple Museum and Library in Washington, D.C. is no stranger to history, philosophy and symbolism. The building holds numerous artifacts which comprises their Masonic collection, International collection, Abraham Lincoln collection, and the Robert Burns Library. They even have a few smaller, specialized collections such as the Claudy collection on the works of Goethe and the L.M collection of esoteric literature.
The museum’s international collection is especially impressive and consist of five sections: Manuscripts and correspondence submitted to the Supreme Council, photographs stored in their archive, material objects in cases, foreign periodicals located in their main stacks, and numerous bookcases in their large reading room. The collection was established in 1933 and has more than 4,000 volumes from 68 countries. About 75% of their Masonic collection is located in their online catalogue. The House of the Temple is also very active on Twitter and posts about unique items and event updates on a weekly basis.
Like the Oscars, we present what we consider the gem in the crown as an ending flourish -- our own Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library in Lexington, MA. Not only a renowned institution in its own right, the Museum & Library is also the home of Supreme Council headquarters. It was was established in 1975 by the Scottish Rite Freemasons of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction on the occasion of the bicentennial. The Museum’s goal is to be the “historical society” of American Freemasonry by collecting, preserving, interpreting and ultimately celebrating the history of fraternalism. It is currently presenting the exhibitions “The Art of American History,” and “Keeping Time: Clockmakers and Collectors.” The Museum houses more than 17,000 objects related to American Freemasonry, fraternalism, and American history.
The Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives is one of the premiere repositories in the United States for the study of Freemasonry and fraternalism. Its other major collecting area is American history. The Library & Archives has one of the world’s most comprehensive collections on the subject of American Freemasonry. The collection comprises over 60,000 books, 1,600 serial titles and 2,000 cubic feet of archival materials related to Freemasonry, fraternalism, and American history.
The Library & Archives is open to the public and is located off the Museum’s main lobby. Readers and scholars are encouraged to contact the Library & Archives staff with research questions and are invited to visit the Reading Room. Masons who live within a two-hour drive of the Museum & Library may borrow books from the Wallace M. Gage Collection, a circulating collection that is part of the Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives.
There is no shortage of unique and historical objects, books, documents etc. one will find at 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA.
Catch a taste of what the Scottish Rite Museum & Library holds below.