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Early masonic publication archive
Freemasons and their families will be familiar with Freemasonry Today, the quarterly magazine sent to all members. What they may not know is that there is a long tradition of magazines and newspapers published for a Masonic audience.
These publications are important sources not only for understanding the issues within freemasonry but for providing information about the individuals involved and the localities where lodges were based. Few complete series of these periodicals are held in libraries and they have only limited indexes.
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry based at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London and partnered with King’s College London Digital Humanities and Olive Software, has undertaken a ground-breaking project to provide free access to searchable digital copies of the major English Masonic publications from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries.
The major titles digitised for this project, which comprises approximately 75,000 pages, are as follows (shown with the dates of publication available digitally):
- Freemasons’ magazine: or, general and complete library (later The scientific magazine and Freemason’s repository) 1793-98
- The Freemasons’ quarterly review 1834-49
- The Freemasons’ magazine and masonic mirror 1856-71
- The Freemason 1869-1901
- The Freemason’s chronicle 1875-1901
- Masonic illustrated: a monthly journal for Freemasons 1900-1906
Access to this digital resource is free via the Resources page of the Library and Museum website by clicking here.
Alternatively it can be accessed at the project website here.
