Current & Upcoming Events
September 2018
Bejewelled: Badges, Brotherhood and Identity
This exhibition features stunning examples of masonic badges referred to as ‘jewels’ from the long tradition in English freemasonry. With additions from around the world, Bejewelled: Badges, Brotherhood and Identity is the largest gathering of masonic jewels ever exhibited in the UK.
Find out more »February 2019
Decoded: Freemasonry’s Illustrated Rulebooks
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry presents: Decoded: Freemasonry’s Illustrated Rulebooks Between 1723 and 1819, two rival Grand Lodges of England published their rulebooks or Constitutions. During this period you would buy a book without a cover. So if a book had an illustration beside the title page, called a frontispiece, the book would be more valuable. As a result there were six frontispieces created for the Grand Lodges’ Constitutions. Decoded: Freemasonry’s Illustrated Rulebooks shows how freemasons used…
Find out more »March 2019
Decoded: Curator’s Tour
Join museum librarian Martin Cherry as he introduces the history and tradition of the freemasons’ frontispiece to accompany the exhibition Decoded: Freemasonry’s Illustrated Rulebooks. During the eighteenth century, two rival Grand Lodges of England used frontispieces to convey messages about freemasonry and its position in society, but also as propaganda tools in their rivalry. Frontispieces are illustrations at the beginning of a book and were considered artworks in their own right. With artists taking seven years to complete some, or…
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