Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
Eventually, we made our way to the Ladd Museum and Nelson Library during the grand opening for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. The two staff members assigned to the space were wearing their new name tags. Both would become two of the three individuals to assume my responsibilities as Curatorial Director once my position was eliminated the next month. Theresa Norman had increased her position from an eight-hour-a-week freelance curator in the Minnesota Masonic Historical Society and Museum to Curator at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. I wondered if she had left her full-time position at the Scott Historical Society yet.
Smiling warmly as I congratulated Theresa on her the new position. She looked a little shocked and appeared very uncomfortable. I thought that her awkwardness might be from her continued insistence throughout the fall of 2014 and all of 2015 that she could never work for the Masons full-time, explaining, “They simply doesn’t understand how to run a museum!” She noted how the general director frequently offered her a full-time position, even after she repeatedly declined his offers.
Since the fall of 2014, I had helped Theresa navigate the maze of fraternal organizations, even creating pamphlets that would help her identify the correct Masonic order as she catalogued a variety of objects, such as officer jewels, tracing charts, aprons, and a sundry of other Masonic memorabilia. You see, Theresa was completely unfamiliar with Freemasonry, its emblems, symbolism, regalia and paraphernalia; heavily relying on her two octogenarian volunteers to verify the name, purpose, organization, and other informational details about various artifacts.
Over the past eighteen months, we had engaged in extensive discussions about the library’s impending need for a separate software system as books should not simply be entered as artifacts in the current Past Perfect database. She explained that all books, with the exception of handwritten records, should be de-accessioned and processed as part of the new Nelson library.
During March of 2016, I emailed Theresa to continue our discussion on the increased volume of incoming acquisitions and where we could store books prior to processing as she was desperate for additional space. Many of the new book donations were directly dropped off at my office as members understood it was the library processing facility, although a few continued to be deposited in the MMHSM museum.
Teresa responded in an email,
“A high majority of the ‘books’ on the tables inside the entrance to the basement storage room are Lodge records (minute ledgers, financial ledgers, etc.). There are also a fair number of Bibles but those will most likely not be added to the historical collection – I just haven’t had a chance to go through them yet. There are grocery boxes underneath the tables on the right side that are filled with books [the general director] brought downstairs last year that I thought were meant for the library and, if so, they can be removed from the workroom.
I think the discussion concerning storage of ciphers and handwritten rituals can wait until after the new museum opens. The objects planned for the exhibit galleries has changed pretty drastically and I have been spending all of my time cataloging the newly selected artifacts and developing new object lists for Mia and the preparators.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you need anything else.”
Around the same time that this email was generated, a visitor stopped by my office after interviewing with the general director and Theresa for a new position at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. He was being hired to move the St. Paul Masonic Library from my office to the new facility and would directly report to Theresa. “But that makes no sense!” I exclaimed. “She only works eight hours a week and has been adamant that she wanted nothing to do with a full-time position or the incoming library.” It appeared fruitless to have someone supervise his handling of the books when she had never even seen the St. Paul Masonic Library contents.
I suggested to my visitor that Theresa must have finally agreed to a full-time position. Ironically, both the general director and CEO had asked my opinion earlier about her joining the MMHC staff. Obviously my suggestions had fallen on deaf ears; I insisted that it was imperative for the individual who would supervise the processing of Masonic artifacts be familiar with both Freemasonry and fraternal history. Theresa was not.
These same qualifications would apply to any future librarians who would process incoming books for the Nelson library.
We needed to find individuals like Heather Calloway or Mark Allen Tabbert; scholars who deeply understood the Fraternity’s material culture. Heather had worked at the House of the Temple in Washington for fourteen years and was now at George Washington College as their Archivist and Special Collections Librarian(https://www.washcoll.edu/live/profiles/8881-heather-k-calloway). Mark Tabbert was Director of Collections at the George Washington Masonic Memorial (an.org/video/?297214-1/george-washington-masonic-memorial).
Those handling the artifacts at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center needed direction from someone with the ability to identify specific Masonic emblems and understand the purpose of each ceremonial object.
My visitor then explained that he would not start his new position until June 1. “Why?!?” I asked. Shocked, I continued, “There is so much to do and I honestly don’t see how you can familiarize yourself with the collection, pack it up, transport it, and organize it on the shelves in that limited time. How will it ever be accessible to future scholars? “
To be continued…
