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August 6, 2025 6 mins
From the July/August 2025 edition of The Scottish Rite Journal.  Any accompanying photographs or citations for this article can be found in the corresponding print edition.


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Scottish Right Journal Podcast, an audio presentation
of the Scottish Right Journal, brought to you by the
Supreme Council of the Scottish Right Southern Jurisdiction Mother Supreme
Council of the World. This week's article is The Basement
Tapes Exploring and Preserving the House of the Temple Lost
Media Archive by Brother Maynard Edwards, thirty third degree and

(00:23):
comes from the July August twenty twenty five issue of
the Scottish Right Journal. As I carried the ancient looking
wooden case into my office, Brother Chris Rouley thirty second
degree k c H. Assistant Grand Historian and Assistant Grand
Archivist and museum Curator Olivia Curcio followed closely behind. They

(00:44):
both wanted to see this new toy in action. The
wooden case had just arrived in the mail, and I
was eager to see if the eBay seller I bought
it from had been truthful about the device inside being
in good working condition. I undid the two silver latches
holding the lid down and revealed the face of a
contraption that was totally unfamiliar to my millennial colleagues. There

(01:05):
was an electrical plug wrapped up inside, and its condition
didn't inspire confidence. But I braved ahead and plugged in
the nearly fifty year old device. This thing is going
to catch fire, Chris joked, Nah, it's fine, I said,
not entirely convinced that he was wrong. Tape, I said,
holding out my hand to Olivia. She handed me a thin,

(01:26):
white cardboard box that had not been moved from its
shelf in the house of the Temple Archive since before
Eisenhower was president. I opened the box and pulled its
contents free, a clear plastic reel of dull brown recording tape.
Although I hadn't threaded a reel to reel machine in
more than two decades, like riding a bike, I had

(01:46):
not forgotten how. Within a few seconds, the tape was
through the machine and ready to roll. I pressed the
play lever, and both the supply and take up reels
moved in unison. A gentle hiss came from the built
in speakers. The hissing lasted for several seconds, and my
unindicted co conspirators stared with raised eyebrows. I could almost

(02:07):
hear them thinking, no way this thing works. As the
hissing continued, I was about to agree with their unspoken doubt,
but then there was a short crackle in the speakers,
quickly followed by a clear baritone voice. This is a
complete recording of the ceremonies at the funeral service of
Past Grand Commander John H. Coles, which took place in

(02:29):
the Council Chamber at the House of the Temple Tuesday,
June twenty second, nineteen fifty four, at three o'clock in
the afternoon. The three of us listened as organ music
faded in, followed by the voice of Past Grand Commander
Thomas Joshua Harkins, thirty third degree, delivering a full eulogy
for a Grand Commander Coles. Cole's mortal remains soon would

(02:50):
be interred into the walls of the House of the Temple.
After we listened in total fascination to a voice that
likely had not been heard in many decades, I spent
a few minutes trying to find a way to connect
the vintage reel to reel tape recorder to my PC
to digitize the audio so it could be preserved and shared.
This was the first of many treasures to come from

(03:12):
what we now call the House of the Temple Lost
Media Archive. The archive holds an extraordinary cachet of twentieth
century media, seventy eight, thirty three and a third and
forty five RPM records, stacks of reel to reel tapes,
dozens of audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs, vhs and Beta Max videos,

(03:33):
and thirty five and sixteen millimeter film. Some of these
contain quirky elements of Masonic history, like a ten episode
TV show from the early nineteen nineties called The Masonic
Television Forum and j Edgar Hoover's personal copy of the
FBI theme song. Who even knew the FBI had a
theme song? Yet some of these artifacts contain important elements

(03:56):
of Masonic history, like the film of the nineteen fifty
teen dedication ceremony of the House of the Temple or
the audio recording of the nineteen sixty one Conference of
Supreme Councils in Washington, d C. Regardless of content, this
type of media has a finite shelf life, unlike books,
which can last for centuries. Most of these media types

(04:17):
are deteriorating even as you read this. Who knows what
elements of our fraternities past are being lost? Forever. After
we finished with that first tape, our production team decided
to take on the mission of digitizing and preserving the
media in the archive. This process requires research and often
requires locating and sometimes repairing old audio and video gear.

(04:41):
That equipment must be adapted to connect to a computer
so it can be digitized and put into cloud storage.
Once it is digitized, we usually spend time with various
software to try to clean up the sounds and pictures
as best we can. All of this is done in
house by our production team. In this process, we realized

(05:01):
that the budget for this project was going to be
a challenge. Thus we came up with an idea we
think of as a win win proposition and created a
member's only section on our popular YouTube channel for just
two dollars per month. Members of our Lost Media Archive
feed are pledging to support our ongoing effort to digitize

(05:22):
and restore these irreplaceable pieces of Masonic history. In exchange,
we give the members access to everything we digitize, and
we already have amassed a huge number of audio and
video pieces. This is an ongoing project and the number
of pieces in our Lost Media Archive that are waiting
to be digitized numbers well into the hundreds, if not

(05:44):
the thousands. We have made this as affordable as possible
for anyone to join, and we still are seeking support
for this endeavor. Whether you are an av nerd who
has bought guns n' roses, appetite for destruction in ten
different formats, or you want to preserve our fraternity's history.
To learn more, visit www dot YouTube dot com slash

(06:07):
Scottish Right Masons slash join, like and share this article
and don't forget to subscribe to the channel. If you
wish to comment, please leave one and as a reminder,
hit the notifications bell. Any accompanying photographs or citations for
this article can be found in the corresponding print edition.
The Scottish Right Journal is published by the Supreme Council

(06:29):
of the Scottish Right Southern Jurisdiction Mother Supreme Council of
the World, Mark Dreysenstock, thirty third degree Managing Editor. I'm
your host, Matt Bauers
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