Instead of commonplace designs like flowers or snowflakes, seamstress Celestia A. Milliken decorated her colorful quilt in 1908 with the square and compass and 70 other secret symbols of Freemasonry.

Secret societies and organisations have long fascinated outsiders, but few have attracted as much intrigue and speculation throughout history as the Freemasons. It is the "world's largest secret ...

Several Masonic signs have been found 'hidden' in paintings of Scotland's bard Robert Burns. Tiny letters and symbols have been painted in minute detail in a paintings by Alexander Nasmyth, a ...

In 1854, US Commodore Matthew Perry landed at Hakodate, Hokkaidō, in the northern part of Japan. Two members of his crew who had died from disease were buried on the slopes of Mount Hakodate—the ...

Fourteen presidents have called themselves Freemasons, members of the centuries-old fraternal organization known for its secret rituals and mysterious symbols. Abraham Lincoln was not one of them, but ...

Freemasonry is the world’s most famous secret society. Its secrecy, indeed, made it into one of history’s most contagious ideas—and thus its history offers a striking lesson in the power of mystery.

Every building in San Francisco is full of secrets, but there are perhaps none with quite as many as the Van Ness street staple better known now as the Regency Center. The four-story complex located ...

A half-century ago, when more Americans participated in civic groups, 4.1 million men regularly spent evenings at Masonic lodges around the country. That period, from the late 1950s to the early 1960s ...