Using the Living Archive

This is the website and private reading room of the Anniversary Lodge of Research No. 175. The lodge is a research lodge: its work is scholarship — reading, arguing from evidence, and publishing papers in its Transactions. The site has two halves. The public galleries — the catalogue, research, events, and About pages — are open to everyone. The Reading Roomis the members’ portal, where your access opens up as your standing with the lodge is recorded.

You do not need an account to browse the catalogue, read the open lectures, chart the Research Atlas, or see the calendar. An account simply lets the archive remember you — your shelf, your reading place, and (once your standing is verified) the deeper holdings.

A reader account is free. Click Join at the top right, or go straight to the registration page.

1. Enter your full name.
2. Enter your email address.
3. Choose a password of at least 8 characters.
4. Tell us your standing: I am a public reader (a free registered shelf) or I am a Master Mason (this starts the verification step described below).
5. Press Register. You arrive in the Reading Room.

Click Sign in at the top right and enter the email and password you registered with.

A free account opens the registered shelf. To reach the brethren’s holdings, the lodge records your Masonic standing. You ask for this from your Account → Verification page, and the Secretary reviews it.

1. Your claim — a short note on what verification means.
2. Your lodge — lodge name and grand jurisdiction are required; lodge number and the year you were raised are optional.
3. Evidence — you may upload a photo of a dues card or similar (optional), and add a private note to the Secretary.
4. Review — check the summary and press Submit request.

Most reviews finish within about a week. When the Secretary approves it, the verified shelves open; if more is needed, you’ll see a short note and may apply again.

The bar across the top is the same on every public page. On a phone, the same links live behind the menu button (the three lines) at the top right.

The seven public sections are:

• Catalogue— the library of the lodge’s holdings.
• Research — what the lodge studies and how the Transactions are made.
• Learning — study guides, with an open introduction for everyone.
• Atlas— the Research Atlas, a chart of the wider Craft’s libraries and journals (Section 9).
• Fellowship — the path from reader to Fellow.
• Events — the trestleboard of communications and lectures.
• About — the lodge, its history, and its officers.

On a phone, tap the menu button (top right) to open the same links as a slide-in panel, with the theme switch and Sign in / Join at the foot.

The catalogue is the lodge’s public register: every item in the library is entered here with a public record — its title, author, abstract, and citation — even when the document behind it is reserved for a particular standing.

1. Type in the Register Search box — it matches titles, authors, and subjects as you type; no need to press Enter.
2. Narrow with the facets — Type, Access, Era, Subject— by clicking a chip. A chosen facet is “stamped”; the line of applied filters reads Filed under…, and each can be lifted off again.
3. Re-order with the sort menu, and switch between the picture plates and a compact ledger with the toggle beside it.
4. Use the drawers on the left — The index, Authors, Transactions — to browse a different way.

Click any open plate to read its record. The page gives the full scholarly description, an access note telling you who may read the document, and — when you are eligible — a button to open it in the Reading Room.

Every record offers a ready-made citation in three forms. Use Chicago for prose footnotes, or BibTeX and RIS to import into reference managers like Zotero. A quick Cite button on each catalogue plate copies the Chicago form without even opening the record.

The Research Atlas — reached from Atlas in the top bar — charts the widerCraft: a curated, verified directory of research lodges, libraries, journals, archives, public-domain books, and independent scholarship from around the world. These are not the lodge’s own holdings; they are signposts to good work kept elsewhere.

1. The lodge (ALR · Nº 175) sits at the centre. Every resource is charted by how it correspondswith the lodge’s study — the brass thread marks scholarly correspondence, never formal affiliation.
2. Hover a field to read its short dossier; choose one to re-index the register beneath the chart to just that field.
3. Scroll to the register — a searchable list of every resource, each with a verified note and a link out to it.

When you sign in, the Reading Room is your home base. A rail on the left (a menu on a phone) holds Dashboard, Catalogue, Trestle Boards, My Shelf, Submissions, and Account.

Open any readable document with Open in the reading room. The reader shows one page on warm “paper” in the dark library, with zoom controls, a page counter, and a box to jump to a page.

My Shelf gathers the items you have bookmarked and the documents you are part-way through.

• Bookmarks — items you saved, newest first. Use Remove to take one off the shelf.
• Continue reading — documents with a kept place, so you can pick up where you stopped.

Trestle Boardsis a small study gallery of historical degree boards — the painted and engraved “tracing boards” that set out each degree’s symbols. One board is shown large at a time, with the whole collection arranged by degree below.

The Eventspage — the lodge’s trestleboard — lists its stated communications and public lectures. The full calendar adds statewide Masonic dates from the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.

Past meetings are kept in the lodge record — a chronology of communications, lectures, and notices by year. The public summary of each is open to all; the original printed notices are reserved to members.

On a communication notice, the Secretary’s ledger is where you record whether you are coming. If you are not signed in, it shows a Sign in to reply link first.

1. Open the communication and find The Secretary’s ledger (to the right, or below on a phone).
2. Choose Attending, Tentative, or Not attending.
3. If you are attending, tick Staying for the meal and set the number of meals.
4. Add a private note to the Secretary if you wish (a dietary need, a guest), then press File reply. You may change it any time up to the reply deadline.

Affiliates and Fellows may offer a paper, talk, review, or note for the Transactions. From the Reading Room open Submissions and choose New submission.

1. Pick a category — Full paper, Short talk, Book review, or Research note.
2. Give a title and a short abstract.
3. Upload your manuscript (a PDF) — optional at first; you can add it from the draft afterwards.
4. Tick the two declarations (your own work; a non-exclusive licence to publish, with copyright staying yours) and Save as draft.
5. When ready, open the draft and press Submit to the editor.

From there your work moves through clear stages:

Open your submission any time to see its current stage, your manuscript versions, and the editor’s notes. If revisions are asked for, upload a new version and Resubmit.

Account shows your record — name, email, standing, any roles, and your lodge details — along with your verification status and sign-in safety notes.

The Contact page reaches the Secretary — by post to the address shown there, or by writing to secretary@nhlodgeofresearch.org. You can also speak with an officer in person at a stated communication or the annual public lecture.