A NEW MASONIC PICTURE BOOK
A New Masonic Picture Book T
here are all sorts of things published about Freemasonry. In 2004 a motion picture named National Treasure was released. Its somewhat unlikely story made reference to some of the well known myths and rumors about Freemasonry; but it was unusual in that, by and large, the story represented the Craft in a reasonably respectable way. This film was followed by another, based on Dan Brown’s controversial book, The da Vinci Code, which made similar, but less favorable, references. Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Fate has just been published; and Dan Brown’s next book is expected to be published in 2007. Each of these books has made, or is expected to make, references to Freemasonry again through the use of popularly believed myths and rumors. While most of these myths and rumors are unfavorable to the Craft, these events have caused the general public to have an increased interest in the subject of Freemasonry. When this sort of increase in general interest occurs, publishers often respond by producing more books on the same subject; and in February, 2005 I was contacted by Thames & Hudson, Ltd. about the possibility of writing a book about Freemasonry for them. Thames & Hudson is a first class, world wide, art publisher with headquarters in London. About seventeen years ago I had written a book about Freemasonry for their Art and Imagination Series, so I was “their knowledgeable Masonic author”. The work they were considering at the time was a hard-cover coffeetable book that would present a comprehensive overview of Freemasonry. The opportunity to write a book that would provide an accurate representation of Freemasonry, in contrast with the myths and rumors that are usually presented to the public, was very attractive; as was the idea
The Voice of Freemasonry
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W. Kirk MacNulty,
Past Master
of working once again with this really good publisher and with their very congenial staff. I jumped at the idea, and that was the start of a year of serious work. One of the principal tasks in the publishing of an art book is the selection of the pictures that are to be included. This research to gather pictures included journeys to Masonic Museums in: Bayreuth; The Hague; Brussels; Paris; London; Dublin; Lexington, MA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Cedar Rapids, IA; as well as to the House of the Temple and the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. It also involved correspondence with other Masonic bodies throughout the world in the hope that they could provide appropriate art; happily, many did. While the conduct of this research was laborious and time consuming, the travel and the meeting of many wonderful Masons was also very rewarding. The next task was writing the text that put all the art material into a sensible framework. That, too, was an arduous, but very rewarding task. The book is 320 pages long, contains 386 pictures; and it provides a reasonably comprehensive overview of Freemasonry. It starts with an introductory section that discusses the historical situation in Europe from which it seems to me that Freemasonry evolved. In outlining the history of Freemasonry the book starts with the Premier Grand Lodge in 1717, and then continues with the early spreading of the Order in Britain and on the Continent of Europe. This section also touches on the early exposes, the growth of “Higher Degrees”, the relationship with the Church, the story of the “Antients and Moderns,” the man-
