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| Research Resources |
Research and the Internet generally does not change the basic requirement of good historical research, namely that it should be based on original, first-hand and contemporary information. However increasingly, we as researchers are starting to exploit online resources, ranging from written documents, photographs to film.
From its inception, the most valuable feature of the Internet has been its enablement in making available remotely, library and archive catalogues, thus researchers can more readily identify relevant source materials.
For researchers into Freemasonry, the indispensable starting point is the on-line catalogue of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, which gives access to the most important Masonic collection in the world at http://www.freemasonry.london.museum.
The catalogue of the Library and Museum does not simply cover its book collections, but also the archives and manuscripts held at Great Queen Street which is extensive and dynamic. Particularly valuable are the catalogue records of historical correspondence.
A number of European and American Masonic libraries have also made their catalogues available on the Internet. The library of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands contains the collections of Georg Kloss, a 19th-century scholar, who sought to acquire a copy of every book published on Freemasonry. This can be found at http://www.vrijmetselarij.nl.
It is normal that if you work in academia to have access to the COPAC web site which enables access to the catalogues of major research and university libraries in Britain, including the British Library and the National Libraries of Wales and Scotland. A search on ‘freemason’ in COPAC will return many thousands of records.
There are now many Internet tools which help trace these materials, The on-line catalogue of the National Archives at Kew contains over 9.5 million records http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
The National Archives also runs some very useful search tools for local and specialist archival repositories in England, including Access to Archives http://www.a2a.org.uk and the National Register of Archives http://www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
The British Library’s Manuscript Collections contain many celebrated Masonic items, such as the medieval Regius and Cooke manuscripts. A search on ‘freemason’ in the British Library’s Manuscript catalogue http://www.molcat.bl.uk reveals that the collections include many other equally fascinating, but less well-known items with Masonic associations. |
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