Two exhibits were displayed in May in the Museum at the Masonic Temple, Philadelphia. One is a pictorial history called "The Masonic Governors of Pennsylvania, 1726-1971." The other is "18th-century Masonic Songbooks," showing almost all of the music books of that era in the collection of The Masonic Library and Museum.

There have been 108 Governors of Pennsylvania to date (1999), of whom 31 are known or presumed to have been Masons. The exhibit includes provincial governors, born in England, and thought to have been Masons, even though there are no records available from the Grand Lodge of England to prove or disprove their membership in the Fraternity. Some of the better-known Masonic Governors were: John and Richard Penn (grandsons of William Penn, who was not a Mason; John was the son-in-law of William Allen, Grand Master 1731-1732; and 1747-1761), James Hamilton (Mayor of Philadelphia 1745-1746, Grand Master 1735-1736); Benjamin Franklin (Grand Master, 1734-1735 and 1749); John Dickinson; Joseph Hiester; Andrew Gregg Curtain (Member of Congress and Minister to Russia); General John Frederick Hartranft; Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (who had been made a Mason-at-Sight by Grand Master William J. Kelly on Jan. 29, 1897); William Cameron Sproul; George M. Leader (also made a Mason-at-Sight by Grand Master Ralph M. Lehr on March 3, 1955); and Raymond P. Shafer, 33º. The last two are still living.

The Seven Liberal Arts were, and still are, the greatest part of a well-rounded education. The seven -- grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy -- are specifically mentioned and extolled in the Fellow Craft Degree of Masonry. Music, as one of them, has always had a firm place in Masonic lodge life. Even today, every lodge hall in the Masonic Temple, Philadelphia has an organ. As explained in"18th-century Masonic Songbooks," the common practice was to sing lyrics to well-known melodies like those of the patriotic "Rule Britannia," "God Save the King (My Country, 'tis of thee)" or other popular (mostly love or drinking) songs, often written by great composers like Purcell and Clarke. Since everyone knew the tunes, the music did not have to be written out, thus keeping the price low. Some songbooks, however, were published with musical notation, which was a very expensive proposition, since staff lines, notes, and other markings had to be engraved on steel or copper. Masonic songs were usually printed at the end of monitors, constitutions, or rituals. The Ahiman Rezon, for example, contains some Masonic songs, as it has through all its editions. There are, however, some pure songbooks, called songsters, which usually contain songs of an appropriately high-minded Masonic nature, then a tremendous number of "refreshment" songs of varying degrees of bawdiness.