PHIELD TRIP
May 22, 2007 chapter meeting
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
     Museum & Library
Washington, DC


On Tuesday, May 22, 2007, fifteen members of the Chesapeake Chapter of APHA met for a tour of Scottish Rite of Freemasonry museum & library. The trip was arranged by Chris Manson. Attendees included Julia Dupuis Blakely, Stephen Blakely, Stuart Bradley, Jackie Coleburn, Jill Cypher, Mike Denker, Roland Hoover, Herschel Kanter, Chris Manson, Ray Nichols, Greg Robison, Lenore Rouse, Chris Sweterlitsch, James C. Wilder, Helena Wright.

Freemasons have gotten a lot of publicity lately with the books and movies National Treasure and The DaVinci Code.

--- --- gave us a tour of the facility and a fascinating discussion of the architecture

Part of our group out front discussing the 'math' of the building which included no metal infrastructure. This was mason heaven.

Above, --- --- shows points out a number of elements to the outside of the building.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies wih us: what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pike

Need to explain Pike a bit.

This is a view of the main meeting room which had a ceiling height of 100 feet. The room is mainly used to elect the Grand... every two years.

This would likely be a bit of explanation of the Freemason story.

Then a bit of an introduction to the library / museum part of the tour.

An interesting piece of printing from one of the displays in the library included that odd line of Ks at the top center. Any idea what that meant?.

A rather nice initial cap in one of the library cases.

There were hundreds and hundreds of pins...

--- --- pointing out some detail to Roland Hoover.

Roland Hoover and Chris Manson were checking out the detail on a Luther Bible.

The metal type in the collection came as the result of a fire. This typecase shows some of the results of the fire which burned the backs of the cases but spared the type itself.

After the tour, a dozen or so of us stopped by the Italian Kitchen for lunch. Jill Cypher and Ray Nichols brought samples of his effort to produce new woodtype using a computer-controlled router along with the first sample (Wallflowers Press blog with sample). Stuart Bradley announced a June APHA / Chesapeake chapter event at a Railway Station Press (map) open house on Saturday, June 23 in Boyce, VA.

Below is a photo of the group awaiting our food.