As is the case with most major museums, items in the Museum of Freemasonry’s collections are not all on display at once and do not only get displayed at Freemasons’ Hall. In order to support learning about freemasonry at home and abroad and as a recognition of its place in British and world history, the Museum aims to support appropriate exhibitions with loans of objects, books and archives. This is not a new thing; in the United Grand Lodge’s tercentenary year we provided loans to nine separate institutions, including exhibitions created by Provinces and major exhibition at the National Library of Austria in Vienna. The 2017 National Programmes conference, hosted by the British Museum in August 2017, explored the subject of lending museum collections and we were invited to present a paper. We were seen as a role model. Over the years we have loaned items to many different museums and galleries, hosting exhibitions covering a huge range of subjects. Three recent examples give a flavour of how broad freemasonry’s reach can be.
In 2022 the Wellcome Collection, a London museum that specialises in health and medicine, had an exhibition called In Plain Sight focusing on the eye, sight and optical health. The first room titled Watch Over Me explored the symbolism of the eye in culture, notably the “all seeing eye”. We loaned an eighteenth century apron with an impressive eye of the Great Architect in the design. This was one of the first items that visitors saw on entering the exhibition.
The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, a City of London Livery Company, celebrated their 400th anniversary in 2023 with an exhibition Treasures of Gold and Silver Wire in the Guildhall Art Gallery. The Worshipful Company has its own lodge, Love and Friendship No. 6123, and they wanted the exhibition to feature the beautiful gold embroidery of masonic regalia. The Museum was able to loan items with royal connections; the regalia of Kings William IV and George VI and the banner of George, Duke of Kent, who was Grand Master from 1939 to 1942. The exhibition, opened by H.R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester, was such a success with over 5,000 visitors that it was extended until the end of the year. The masonic items were in such a prominent position, they could even be seen from the balcony by visitors to other parts of the Guildhall Gallery. They also feature in the brochure that was published to accompany the exhibition.
Further afield, a major international exhibition was held at the Finnish National Archives, Helsinki, celebrating the centenary of the Grand Lodge of Finland. What is Freemasonry opened in February and ran until the end of October 2024. The exhibition co-ordinator from the Grand Lodge of Finland, Lauri Helaniemi, worked with us to select items from our collection reflecting the early period of English freemasonry. The chosen objects; a 1723 Book of Constitutions, an early apron, a marble tracing board, a snuff box and an early jewel were couriered by myself to Helsinki airport, where I was met by an escort to continue the journey. Finland hosted the Association of Masonic Museums, Libraries and Archives in 2024, so our loan was seen by freemasons from across Europe. The objects acted as an ambassador for freemasonry in a year when the Grand Lodge of Finland sought to help Finnish people get a better understanding of the craft.
The Museum is always talking to other museums and several potential loans are in the pipeline. They do not always come to fruition but the interest in our collections and the negotiations give us wonderful opportunities to spread the message about the history and principles of English freemasonry.
