History of the Masonic Library and Museum Association

There are a plethora of masonic-related organizations in the world like High Twelve International Inc., National Sojourner Inc., youth groups like the Order of DeMolay, and there are some less mainstream organizations that have niche subsets that collect specifically George Washington masonic stamps. 

The Masonic Library & Museum Association (MLMA) is one these organizations.  Founded in 1995, the mission of this organization is to assist and support, through education, facilitation of communication, coordination of effort, and other means, those individuals charged with the collection, management, and preservation of the Masonic heritage.

We take museums and libraries for granted; always expecting them to be there but are usually out of site. A large undertaking  that can have tens of thousands of objects with a staff of one or two people and knowing the precise location of each item while keeping paperwork for them is not an easy skill.  Many Grand Lodges and other Masonic organizations have both in some fashion, displaying their proud history of Freemasonry found in their state but it takes resources, knowledge, and planning, which wasn’t always the case.

Like many organizations, MLMA came about from a desire to not only assist oneself to have more resources but to also help others in similar situations with common issues.  Decades ago, people interested in Masonic libraries and museums used to attend the Northeast Conference on Masonic Education and Libraries (NECOMELI) as this was an annual focal point for getting together with like minded individuals from across the country. In the early 1990’s, Brothers John H. Platt, Jr. (Pennsylvania); Paul Bessel (George Washington Masonic National Memorial); Keith Arrington (Iowa); Ed Ralph (Ontario); Mike Kaulback (Massachusetts); along with Cynthia Alcorn (MA); Joan Kleinknecht Sansbury (Supreme Council, AASR, SJ) and others came together during these meetings, dubbed this side-group the “North American Masonic Librarians Consortium” and held their own private sessions during the conferences. 

These librarians and curators eventually decided that they wanted to hold a separate meeting that met in the fall, even though NECOMELI met in the spring. These members, knowing that Grand Lodges would not financially support another organization with similar goals, chose to still be active with NECOMELI as well (which was later disbanded in 2001 and their assets turned over to MLMA). The first meeting occurred in October 1992, at the House of the Temple, Scottish Rite Rite, Southern Jurisdiction in Washington D.C. 

On October 20-21, 1995, this group attended their Fall Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hosted by Keith Arrington from the Grand Lodge of Iowa, and reorganized themselves as the Masonic Library and Museum Association, with John. H. Platt from Pennsylvania as its first President. 

Their idea was simple;  In the beginning, the members were concerned with gathering data on its member libraries, the procedures used in their museum and library, sources they used for finding Masonic books and literature, and indexing Masonic articles in journals (how and where to acquire books was a serious issue issue as online retail was not nearly as prevalent as it is now). Now, the organization focuses more with bibliographic and member support, essentially helping both large and small scale, both public and private, libraries and museums set themselves up to organize their collections. The old Boyden cataloging system, used by many librarians, was updated by Richard Bush, so it can remain easily used. The website offers articles and other helpful information for all persons, whether they are a professional in the field or a person just starting his collection. 

Now, the organization is thriving with members from throughout the world. One is not required to be a mason to join this organization as its mission and scope allows it to be open to all who’s interested in learning and spreading knowledge. Many Grand Lodge librarians and museum staff are not in the fraternity as they chose to hire professionals in the field to care for the history of Freemasonry in their state. Proper care and preservation of our Masonic history is integral to understanding American Freemasonry and is more crucial than the title of “Brother” to the caretaker of our history. 

The organization holds an annual conference that is a wonderful asset to everyone in attendance as there are a series of lectures with various topics that change each year but focus mostly with museums, libraries, collection care, storage, niche collecting (remember those stamps?) and more. Once the business section of the meeting is complete, there are various activities planned to enjoy both at the hosting location and surrounding attractions.

One of the more fun curricular activities that became a tradition is assisting the hosting members in their museum and library after getting a private tour.  In 2019, the meeting was held at the Detroit Masonic Temple in Michigan, where Brother Rob Moore, Director, was kind enough to give the attendees a private tour of the largest masonic building in the world.  After the meeting, a large group got together and helped clean various overstocked rooms full of books and countless artifacts that were just put away for storage (that haven’t seen the light of day for decades) that were upwards to two hundreds years old. A few hours of help from the group of us not only made the rooms presentable and usable for storage once again, but all us working together made doing the project easy, enjoyable, and more importantly, helped progress the museum. 

The organization is always looking for future hosting locations. We encourage anyone interested in Masonic libraries or museums, whether large or small, from lodge libraries, Grand Lodges,  or private collectors, to join us in the organization and help spread the knowledge and joy we share of Freemasonry and the love we have for preserving history.