The following article represents selected portions of “The Friends of the Library” newsletter, spring 2001. This bulletin is sent to all members of The Friends of the Library, and you may receive a complimentary copy of the next issue by simply sending your request to the Library’s address above. Contributors of $100.00 or more to The Friends of the Library receive special benefits such as this quarterly newsletter, invitations to special events, and recognition by name in the Scottish Rite Journal.
Your interest in and assistance of the Library and Museums of the Supreme Council in the House of the Temple, Washington, D.C., are greatly appreciated. Together, we can preserve and enhance our great Masonic heritage!

Your Library in the New Millennium
Your Supreme Council Library staff is committed to improving the Library and helping its patrons. In order to provide the resources needed to increase your general and Masonic knowledge, we have initiated several new projects.

• Spine Labels -We have introduced color-coded spine labels for the entire Library. These labels will identify the various collections and insure that they are properly shelved.
• Identification of Items in the Special Collection -
• As our collections contain a number of exceptionally rare and precious books, labels often cannot be placed directly on the spine. In those cases, the labels will be placed on acid-free strips inserted in the book, thus not damaging the book or its value.
• Editing the Entire Masonic Collection -
• This huge undertaking will enable our collection to go online in late 2001, which will allow our patrons to research our catalog over the Internet.
• Binding Grand Lodge Proceedings and State Journals -
• This project has been neglected over the past 20 years. However, we are now completing and cataloging this collection. If you would like to donate copies of some of the earliest proceedings of your Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Appendant Body, or other Rite or Order, please write to us —we’d like to hear from you.
• Acquisitions - The Library hopes to acquire  new Masonic books, as well as any out-of-print Masonic books or periodicals, which we do not have. If you have a rare or hard-to-find publication you’d like to donate, please write to us. We collect books in every language, including official, unofficial, pro-Masonic, as well as anti-Masonic literature.

Bicentennial Celebration
The year 2001 promises to bring excitement for Scottish Rite Masons. This fall (Sept. 30–Oct. 3), we will celebrate 200 years of Scottish Rite Masonry with a fantastic exhibit at the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the birthplace of the Scottish Rite in 1801. Supreme Council Librarian/Curator, Joan K. Sansbury, and Ill. Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, Grand Archivist and Grand Historian, in cooperation with exhibit designers, will include valuable and interesting artifacts from our collections in the public display. Some of these artifacts include: Dupont Delorme’s manuscript book, which includes some early versions of the Scottish Rite rituals in French (as first used by the Supreme Council), rare Masonic aprons, Kit Carson’s rifle, and an antique ballot box.

J. Edgar Hoover Collection
After spending over a half-century as the Director of the FBI, Ill. J. Edgar Hoover, 33°, G.C., acquired a large collection of books and memorabilia. Many of these items are now located at the House of the Temple. Jasmin Mehovic, a graduate student from Georgetown University, recently organized and classified the J. Edgar Hoover Memorial Library. The library houses several thousand books, documents, microfilms, and audio-visual records. Adjacent to the library is a small reading room adorned with Hoover photographs, awards, and several of Hoover’s personal collections. The hallway in front of the office and library now hosts a small gallery, with hundreds of Hoover’s medals, oil paintings, cartoons, and movie posters.

Experience Scottish Rite History
Get a glimpse of Masonic history! Due out in fall of 2001, the Supreme Council will produce a pictorial history of the Scottish Rite entitled The Valley of the Craftsmen, Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America, 1801–2001. Follow the story of one of America’s oldest fraternities through images, many of which have not been published in over 100 years. The Archives and Library staff members have located over 400 images which tell the story of the heroes, conflicts, and trials of the Scottish Rite. See previously unpublished photographs like the original Shepheard’s Tavern, the birthplace of the Supreme Council. This book ($75.00) will be a companion piece to the Museum display in Charleston in the fall of 2001. See “Book Reviews.”

Restoring the Original Library of the Supreme Council
“Brother Moore, limit me in my expenditure in books!” exclaimed Albert Pike, the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council. “No, you mustn’t require me to do so!” protested Brother Moore. Pike advised Moore to fulfill his duty saying, “If I am left free to do so, I would spend a very large sum of money to increase and keep up the Libraries.” Albert Pike was the original founder and supporter of the Library of the Supreme Council. In fact, he donated his private collection of books, numbering over 8,000. It was Albert Pike’s intention that his personal collection of books would remain as one collection as the basis of the Library of the Supreme Council. Unfortunately, his collection was broken apart over time and spread throughout the entire Library.
 

Grand Commander Albert Pike, 33°, in his library

After much effort by the Library staff, each of his books has now been removed from the general collection and placed in an archival location where the Pike Collection can be housed together. We are now in the process of organizing and cataloging the collection. Due to the age of many of the books, they cannot have labels on the spine. Each is carefully numbered and given an acid-free strip (like a bookmark), which contains its Dewey Decimal number for classification purposes.
Many of Pike’s books were originally bound in Russian leather, which has deteriorated over time, allowing the spine and the cover of many of the books to crack and break. We are currently working to have these volumes restored or rebound. Pike reported, “In the autumn of 1878, the Supreme Council was still not the owner of a single book. We determined then to create a little library, and in the summer of 1880, we had accumulated that of which we printed a catalogue.” Pike believed in the creation and support of public libraries, which could be used for free by all people. His original intention has remained constant since the establishment of the Library in 1888. The Library of the Supreme Council was the first free library open to the public to be founded in the city of Washington, D.C. At that time, the Library of Congress was located in limited space in the Capitol building, and its collections were not organized for any extended public use. The only libraries were private collections or restricted collections at educational institutions. It was Albert Pike’s intention that there should be a Masonic library as complete as any in the world in our nation’s capital. His wish has been pursued since the Library’s founding. The collection has grown to 193,000 volumes and has provided materials for a public, reference, and archival library.