Printing Secrets: Exploring Secrecy in the Printed Materials of British Freemasonry

Bringing sociological and literary themes together, this project, which is funded by a John Rylands Research Institute grant, considers how printers, publishers, and booksellers dealt with tensions of secrecy and transparency in the manufacture and distribution of Masonic handbooks, rituals, speeches, and so forth, during the Freemasonry's period of growth in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the future, we hope to acquire further research funding to use this work to reflect on current efforts to rebrand Freemasonry as an ‘open’ group, and to use this case to develop sociological thinking on secrecy more broadly.

The project is developed by Dr Andrew Balmer (University of Manchester) and Dr Michael Durrant (University of Bangor). Dr Laura Houseman (University of Manchester) is Research Associate on the project.