Like several of America's founding fathers, George Washington was a Freemason. Yet Washington's ties to the fraternity and the role it played in his life have never been widely researched or understood. In A Deserving Brother, Mark Tabbert presents a complete story of Washington's known association with Freemasonry. Much more than a conventional history, this book has curated an exhibition of artifacts and episodes to fully contextualize our first president's Masonic life and experiences. Consulting the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, the Boston Athenaeum, and numerous private Masonic lodges, libraries, and museums, Tabbert chronicles all known instances of Washington's association with Freemasons, confirming some existing knowledge, adding new insights, and debunking unsubstantiated myths. The record of Washington's Masonic ties is presented through contextualizing descriptions and color illustrations, ranging from lodge minute books recording Washington's attendance, to his Washington's Masonic aprons, from the tools used at the U.S. Capitol cornerstone ceremony to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts's gold urn, made by Paul Revere, containing a lock of Washington's hair. A Deserving Brother documents the significance of Freemasonry in Washington's life and career in a way that separates fact from fiction and will satisfy both historians and general readers, including today's Freemasons.
Mark A. Tabbert is Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial and author of American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities.
A Deserving Brother is clearly written, utterly readable, and even personable. It provides a window into the past, like a well-curated exhibition, and is a must-have book for readers who seek to better understand George Washington or historical Freemasonry. --Kevin Butterfield, Washington Library at Mount Vernon [A] handsomely published book, which includes dozens of glossy, full-color photographs of images and artifacts... For historians considering Washington's life, Freemasonry, the history of voluntary associations, or the material culture of the memory of the Founders, there is much here of potential research value, surprise, and occasional delight. -- "Journal of Southern History" A valuable contribution to the literature on the history of American freemasonry and George Washington. This well-done and interesting book brings together an important collection of documents for researchers and contextualizes them within American masonic history, Washington's life, and the cult of Washington among white freemasons. It will appeal to academics studying Washington and early American freemasonry and be of great interest to the serious or casual American freemason who wishes to learn more about the history of his order. -- "H-Early-America" This valuable book brings together a variety of documents and images of objects that are scattered and sometimes not easily available but which are central to understanding George Washington's relationship to Freemasonry. It also offers substantial research about the topic, making it a work that all future biographers of Washington--and students of a range of related issues--will need to consult. --Steven C. Bullock, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, author of Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840
