Arturo deHoyos, 33°
Grand Archivist and
Grand Historian of the Supreme Council
1733 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009–3103

The Library and Archives of the Supreme Council preserve our Scottish Rite heritage so that we can pass it on to future generations.

Freemasons are notorious collectors. A couple of years ago, my son, who was then 15 years old, leafed through a Masonic supply catalogue that was in the day's mail. When he was through, he remarked that Masons would apparently buy anything that had a Masonic symbol on it. As we all know, he's not far off the mark. Recently, while on the Internet, I looked at the popular auction site eBay and discovered there were some 1,700 Masonic items for sale that day. They ranged from cheap pamphlets costing a couple of dollars to moderately priced antique cigar cutters, ashtrays, and bookends to regalia, jewels, and watches costing thousands of dollars. And, being the collectors we are, Masons were bidding on the trinkets as well as the treasures.

We are also, generally, lovers of books. Many of us belong to Research Lodges because they help obtain the first requests we uttered while Candidates: they give us light, further light, and more light. Albert Pike said that books are like vessels, traveling trough time, which bear the precious cargo of knowledge. A hundred years ago it was popular to divide Masons into two classes: (1) the "parrot" Mason who knew the words of the ritual and didn't understand its meaning, and (2) the "bright" Mason who was not only familiar with the words of the ritual but also interested in Masonry's symbolism, philosophy, and history.

For those "bright" Brethren who want to increase their Masonic knowledge, the Supreme Council has two outstanding resources: the Library and Archives at the House of the Temple. There are differences between the two, but both are valuable resources for the interested Brother.

The Library
When Albert Pike joined the Scottish Rite in 1853, the Supreme Council did not have a library. The books owned by members of the Supreme Council were their individual property. Two years after joining the Rite, Pike was appointed to a committee that was to revise the rituals of the Order. He later lamented that, as the Supreme Council did not own any books, it cost him thousands of dollars of his own money to buy the reference volumes he needed to help him in revising the ritual. The books he began collecting at this time he later sold, and they became the core of our present-day Library. After the Supreme Council moved from Charleston, S.C., to Washington, D.C., in 1870, Pike opened the Library to the public, and it became the first free public library in the District.

Since then, we have been fortunate to have Librarians interested in acquiring a wide variety of Masonic books; and, through the generosity of benefactors, the Library has, over the years, acquired several outstanding private collections of both Masonic and non-Masonic works. Among the rare Masonic items we have are early copies of the scarcest and most important exposures. Because of the early proscription against committing esoteric matters to paper, these exposures have, ironically, become our best sources of information on the development of Masonic ritual during the formative period of the seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. Although they are often of uneven and questionably reliability, we have occasional verification from authentic sources. We have, for example, Pike's personal 1730 edition of Samuel Pritchard's Masonry Dissected, which provided the first printed description of the Master Mason Degree; and just a year ago, Ill. S. Brent Morris, 33°, G.C., acquired for us the only known copy of the 1723 Post-Boy catechism, a reprint of which appeared in Heredom, Volume 7, earlier this year.

Although the Supreme Council Library is non-circulating, and because the Library has always been free to the public, many of our rare books have gone missing or been damaged. To help prevent future loss, within the past couple of years the Library built a new climate-controlled book vault in the basement of the House of the Temple. This vault contains what we refer to as our "Special Collections," that is, the most rare and valuable non-Scottish Rite documents. Some of the non-Masonic items it contains include letters written by George Washington, early editions of the works of medieval Hermeticists, the philosophers, and rare religious writings. For the most part, however, it includes an outstanding collection of rare Masonic pamphlets and books, chiefly printed in the 1700s and 1800s.

A "Friends of the Library" association was also created to help obtain, preserve, and repair damaged books. In addition to special promotional offers, contributing members receive a quarterly newsletter and the opportunity to buy duplicate books from the Library's collection. Your monetary contributions go toward acquiring needed books and restoring those needing conservation. During the 1920s and 1930s, an attempt was made to preserve hundreds of rare pamphlets by grouping them together and binding them into a series of volumes.

A portrait engraving of Robert Fludd, the author of Mysteries of Diseases (1631), is the frontispiece of the Supreme Council Library's copy of this book, pictured above in pieces prior to its restoration. This is one of approximately 75 rare books already restored due to generous contributions by members of a new group, the Friends of the Library.

At the time it was not known that some of the later prints were on paper with a high acidic content. Just two years ago, we discovered that these pamphlets are self-destructing and that the acid was leaching into the older pamphlets they were bound with. We are de-acidifying these documents and unbinding the volumes. So far, 400 volumes of periodicals have been processed.

We know also that several of the books, which are missing from our collection, were simply "borrowed" without permission. Many of these are no longer in print and difficult to find. However, we are aware that many Scottish Rite Valleys, and even individual members, have duplicates they could part with. I have been told of several Valleys that have sold their duplicate books to members. Now the Supreme Council is certainly in favor of private Masonic libraries, but I urge you to remember that the Council's Library should include the most complete collection of Masonic books possible. It is to this collection that many leading Masonic scholars travel when preparing Masonic works for publication, and the Library is, of course, the resource used by the Supreme Council during its sessions.

Each year the Library staff receives hundreds of inquiries and helps patrons, who are interested in Freemasonry, around the world. If you are in a position to donate duplicate books, or if you would like to ensure that a rare book, Masonic or otherwise, is preserved and available to researchers, please consider making a tax-deductible donation of these books or other items to the Supreme Council Library.

Over the past couple of years, the Library has also implemented a new computer cataloging system. The goal is, eventually, to place the system online, over the Internet, so patrons can search our catalog, enabling the Supreme Council Library to serve you better.

There are two ways to utilize the Library. The first, which we encourage, is to visit it yourself. Many Masons plan a visit around the Supreme Council's Biennial Sessions, which are held every other October in odd years. Others find it more convenient to plan a visit coinciding with Masonic Week in Washington, D.C. This gathering is an annual event during which several Masonic groups meet each February. If you belong to the Allied Masonic Degrees, the Philalethes Society, the Grand College of Rites, the Masonic Rosicrucians, the Knight York Cross of Honor, or any of the other organizations which meet at this annual event, you might stay an extra day and come see us.

The other way to use the Library is to write to the Librarian, Mrs. Joan E. Sansbury. Because of the small staff, it may take a while to respond to your request, but it will be responded to. Requests sent by the U.S. mail receive the quickest attention. E-mail requests are not encouraged, because of the large volume of e-mail we receive daily.

In any case, please remember that the basic task of the Library staff is to help you find your resources, not to do your research for you. We sometimes receive requests that amount to writing a research paper. Obviously, these requests are beyond the reasonable abilities of the Library staff.

The Archives
The Archives of the Supreme Council are distinct from the Library and serve a twofold purpose. Unlike the Library, the Archives are not generally open to the public. The Archives are the repository of the official records of the Scottish Rite. They house the original documents dealing with our founding, rituals, and current domestic and international affairs. Two main storage areas comprise the Archives. The first is the General Archives. This is where the records of Active Members and Deputies are kept, together with correspondence relating to Appendant and foreign Masonic Bodies. Some two million items are stored in archival cases and fireproof file drawers. The second main storage area is the Archives Vault. This is where our most valuable manuscripts and books are preserved. They include our Scottish Rite ritual collection, as well as those of foreign jurisdictions, and manuscript copies of books, both published and unpublished.

As with the Library, our collection is not as complete as it should be. Soon after the founding of the Supreme Council, we suffered a series of misfortunes, including fire and the death of our leaders, which caused us to lose some of our earliest records. When Albert Pike joined the Supreme Council, he was horrified to learn that many of our most valuable documents had been given to other jurisdictions and never returned. He also learned that many of our documents were thrown haphazardly into boxes and not catalogued. Although he greatly improved things and subsequent archivists have continued Pike's example, we are now, for the first time, systematically examining every document in the Archives, cataloging and preserving each in ultraviolet-filtered Mylar® archival protectors and acid-free containers.

For example, I recently located and secured our primary foundation documents, including Frederick Dalcho's patents. Several of these beautiful documents have been photographed and will appear, for the first time, in color in a pictorial history of the Supreme Council we are preparing for our 2001 Bicentennial Celebration. Some of these documents will appear in a Charleston, South Carolina, museum exhibit commemorating the bicentennial. This will be a traveling exhibit and available for display in your Orient after the 2001 Biennial Session.

The items in the Archives are our most valuable collection of records. In many regards, they are comparable, as far as the Scottish Rite is concerned, to the documents in the National Archives and Smithsonian Museums. Because of their age, condition and, in some cases, confidential nature, they are not generally subject to casual review by visitors to the House of the Temple. If, however, you are a bona fide researcher looking for a bit of historical information not available in print elsewhere, you are welcome to write to me, as Grand Archivist, and I will investigate the issue. Under prearranged circumstances, researchers may examine rare historical items. Our emphasis is on preservation and appropriate scholarly, not general, use.

The Scottish Rite Research Society is making rare historical items, housed in the Archives, available to our members. Society members will recall that in the past year we sent you a hardbound copy of Albert Pike's Book of the Words, which is an etymological dictionary of the passwords used in the Scottish Rite's rituals. We are also working on a book which will reprint and compare the rituals of the 25th Degree "Order of the Royal Secret," which was the ancestor of the Scottish Rite. All of this material is stored in the Archives.

As with the Library, the Archives solicits copies of rare items it does not have. If you own old Masonic manuscripts, rituals, ciphers or historical documents, we again ask you to remember us. Ideally, we should have a copy of every document issued by the Supreme Council. Sadly, we do not.

Earlier, I mentioned seeing many Masonic items on eBay, an Internet auction site. We are not the only ones buying Masonic items. Recently, the Supreme Council was able to reclaim one of our official ritual books that was offered for auction on eBay by an woman who found it in a goodwill shop in the Pacific Northwest. In another instance, a non-Mason won the bid on a valuable collection of rituals that had belonged to an obscure and defunct clandestine order. Although the new owner has tentatively agreed to photocopy the documents for the Supreme Council, we should have purchased the collection. In the past, I have found and purchased rare Masonic books and manuscripts in rare bookshops and second-hand stores. If you are aware of things we should have, we'd like to know about them, or perhaps you can donate them to us. We all love the Scottish Rite. Help us preserve our heritage and history so that we can pass it on to future generations.

Arturo deHoyos is a Past Master (1991–92) of McAllen Lodge No. 1110, McAllen, Texas, and a dual member of the S.R. Bodies of San Antonio, Texas and Santa Fe, N.M. He is the leading authority on the Scottish Rite's early history, official literature, and ritual development. He has published numerous articles and books on Freemasonry, and co-authored, with Ill. S. Brent Morris, 33°, G.C., the popular work, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? The Methods of Anti-Masons. Ill. deHoyos also assists the Grand Commander and Grand Executive Director on special projects, advises the Supreme Council on constitutional and statutory matters, and monitors international Scottish Rite relations. Ill. deHoyos is a member of the Knight York Cross of Honor, the Allied Masonic Degrees, the Red Cross of Constantine, the Royal Order of Scotland, Society of Blue Friars, the Grand College of Rites, and the Societatis Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Fœderatis.