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Text Box: The National Heritage Museum looked to broaden public awareness of the principles of Freemasonry and its history with the opening of a new long-term exhibition, "To Build and Sustain: Freemasons in American Community." The exhibition designed to explain what Freemasonry is and why men have continued to join the fraternity throughout American history. "To Build and Sustain" opened June 1, 2002. Freemasonry's long history in America will be presented in an accessible and imaginative way. A series of display areas within the gallery will be designed to represent various American buildings create a town-like quality. Visitors will travel through the town's "streets" and "buildings" learning American history, meeting historic Freemasons, and discovering their work in America's communities. "The buildings in the exhibition physically demonstrate the stonemason's craft and symbolically represent the concept of Freemasons working together to build community by making individual men better." said Mark Tabbert, Curator of Masonic and Fraternal Collections at the Museum and curator of the exhibition. "Visitors will be surprised to discover that behind our ever-changing history and community lies a permanent Masonic landscape continually echoing the fraternity's symbols, tools, and principles. Visitors will come to understand the craft of Freemasonry is a system of morality constructed by symbols and taught through allegory and rituals." The initial section of "To Build and Sustain" is divided into three parts that explain the origins of Freemasonry, its role in the American Revolution and the early Republic. The first part will show three sources that help create Freemasonry in the early 1700s, Judeo-Christian religion, medieval stonemason guilds, and the English Enlightenment. The second part will explain Freemasonry's development in the American colonies and its attraction to men like Benjamin Franklin. The third part will explain how Masonic and Enlightenment principles were used to establish the United States, with Brother George Washington's role in laying the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. After the Anti-Masonic Period of the 1820s and 30s, the exhibition's second section provides reasons why men join the fraternity to the present day. Divided into seven different display cases or "buildings," each provides a historical and individual reason for membership. Self-improvement, social, family and community service activities among others have all attracted men. The Masonic principles that supported these activities also encouraged Masons to build and support new Masonic organizations such as the Shriners, Order of the Eastern Star and DeMolay for Boys. Other Americans used the fraternity as a model to build Masonic-like organizations such as the Moose, Elks, or Knights of Columbus. The objects displayed in each "building" also illustrate the consistency of Masonic principles through time, from an 1870s Masonic charity account book to the disbursement of $3 million collected by Freemasons for the September 11, New York Relief Fund. "Freemasonry is the common ancestor of most American voluntary associations. Showing a progression from Masonic to present-day organizations allows visitors to see this lineage and move forward or backward in time," explained Tabbert. "So if a visitor understands Masonic networks in 1800, they might understand why business and professional associations developed in the 1870s, which, in turn, developed into such clubs as Rotary International in the 1900s. Conversely, visitors who are familiar with today's Rotary may see how local businessmen began organizing clubs in the 1870s, and how Freemasonry's has provided such opportunities means since the 1700s." The exhibition's concluding section provides information on how the today's Freemasons sustain modern American communities. Divided into three display areas they echo Freemasonry's tenets of brotherly love, relief, and truth as they show Freemasons supporting religious and racial toleration, providing health care and disaster relief, while funding colleges and scholarships and building libraries and museums such as the National Heritage Museum. Through this work the visitor may understand that Freemasonry's purpose is to make "good men better," who, in turn, create, build and sustain good communities. Throughout the exhibition will be various interactive and "touchable" ways for visitors to understand Masonic principles, symbols, and history. At the exhibition's conclusion will be a computer interactive that encourages visitors to explore detailed information on Masonic activities and information.

Text Box: Brother Benjamin Franklin Initiated: February 1730-1731
Secretary: 1735-1738
St. John’s Lodge, Philadelphia
Junior Grand Warden: June 24, 1732
Grand Master: June 24, 1734
Provincial Grand Master, Boston: June 10, 1749
Provincial Grand Master, Philadelphia: June 1760
Deputy Grand Master: March 13, 1750