50th Anniversary of Cornerstone Laying of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

This March marks the fiftieth anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library in Lexington, Massachusetts. The ceremony took place just a little more than a year before the museum opened to the public. Much to our delight, a 15-minute film of the March 10, 1974 event was made and still exists today in our Library & Archives collection.

The Museum & Library recently had this 16mm film of the event digitized and you can now watch the entire 15-minute film here.

The 1974 Proceedings of the Supreme Council, 33°, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, included a description of the ceremony:

A little more than a year after the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Museum and Library complex occurred, the gray granite cornerstone, gift of the Scottish Rite Masons of New Hampshire, was placed officially with ancient ceremonies conducted by the officers of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, with Grand Master Donald W. Vose presiding.

Some 400 participants and spectators were on hand on a clear but blustery Sunday afternoon for these traditional cornerstone exercises. Active and Emeriti Members of the Supreme Council, who had been in Boston on the preceding days for the Mid-winter Executive Session, served as hosts for the occasion…

In addition to Masonic dignitaries, the ceremony also included representatives of the Town of Lexington, as well as Hugh Shepley from the architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, and Walter Creelman from Turner Construction Company.

Preceding the outside cornerstone laying event, Donald Vose, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, gave remarks in the museum's unfinished lobby. Forty-six “distinguished Masonic guests,” as well as many representatives of the Supreme Council all placed “selected items to be preserved for posterity in the cornerstone box. A wide selection of historical documents and Masonic memorabilia and artifacts were sealed inside the cornerstone…” A list of the contents of the box was printed in the 1974 Proceedings of the Supreme Council.

Following the outdoor cornerstone laying ceremony, the guests reassembled in the lobby, where Sovereign Grand Commander George A. Newbury, 33° delivered remarks. Newbury was the visionary and driving force behind the founding of the museum. In a speech he delivered at the 1972 Annual Session of the Supreme Council, Newbury spoke of his vision:

Our objective is to set up at Lexington a museum and a library devoted primarily to the visual and auditory presentation of facets of American History which will stimulate a lively interest in it and an appreciation of the tremendous achievements of those who founded our Country, established her form of government, developed her institutions and economy, and performed the miracle of bringing her from a scattered group of weak and struggling colonies to a place of World leadership in the phenomenally short period of two hundred years.

...We plan to tell a thrilling story--the story of America.

Were you at the cornerstone laying event or otherwise involved with the founding of the Scottish Rite Museum & Library? We’d love to hear from you!

Captions:

Photo 29, Museum and Library cornerstone laying photograph album, 1974, Gift of the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A., A1992-175-001

Photo 39, Museum and Library cornerstone laying photograph album, 1974, Gift of the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A., A1992-175-001

Life Aboard the 𝙐.𝙎.𝙎 𝘿𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚

George Newbury and Shipmates, ca. 1918. Gift of George A. Newbury, 78.48.60.

In April of 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and formally entered World War I. Thousands of men registered for the draft in the month following the declaration, including George A. Newbury (1895-1984), former Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction from 1965-1975.

Newbury, aged 21, registered for the United States Navy, in Ripley, New York, on April 21, 1917. He served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Delaware, one of five American battleships in the 6^th Battle Squadron sent to assist the British Grand Fleet around the Orkney Islands near Scotland. Newbury left the Navy in June 1919 with the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, seven months after the war ended in November 1918.

The group photograph above shows Newbury—on the far right—with his fellow shipmates aboard the U.S.S. Delaware sometime in 1918. Newbury donated a collection of photographs from his time in the Navy to the Museum

Result of Six Months in the War Zone, ca. 1918. Gift of George A. Newbury, 78.48.17

& Library in 1978. The images show daily life on a wartime battleship, from recreational activities to the visits of foreign dignitaries. Almost all of the photographs include the handwritten letters, "McK,"  near the bottom of the prints. Staff is currently researching Naval photographers to learn more about who "McK" was and if there are other similar images attributed to that photographer. To see more photographs from life aboard the U.S.S. Delaware visit our online collections page here.

To learn more about other World War I items in our collection, visit our exhibition “Americans, Do Your Bit: World War I in Posters,” on view through June 2018.

 

 

 

References:

Proceedings of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33 degree, for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America (Lexington, MA: Supreme Council 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, 1984)

Naval History and Heritage Command. USS Delaware (Battleship # 28, later BB-28), 1910-1924. www.history.navy.mil/. https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships/delaware-bb-28.html, accessed March 16, 2018.