Talking About Rituals in Atlantic City

In September 1936, the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction's Supreme Council held their Annual Meeting in Atlantic City, NJ at the Hotel Traymore. This photograph, likely taken in a room at the Traymore, shows the Council's Committee on Rituals and Ritualistic Matter sitting around a table. The Committee was - and is - responsible for all of the Scottish Rite degrees sanctioned by the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, as well as other aspects related to ritual. In 1936, the Committee approved a design for an "Emeritus Member of Honor." The small hinged box sitting in the center of the table possibly holds one of these jewels.

The members of the Committee pictured above are (left to right): John S. Wallace, Norris G. Abbott, William H.H. Chamberlin, Frederick W. Hamilton, Melvin M. Johnson, Frank S. Sayrs, Charles H. Spilman, Samuel H. Baynard, Jr., and Delmar D. Darrah

The photo above, which is in the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, appears in the new book, A Sublime Brotherhood: Two Hundred Years of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.

Caption:

Melvin Johnson and the Ritual Committee, 1936. Fred Hess & Son, Photographer. Collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, SC 154.