Iowa Freemasons

The Grand Lodge of Iowa, the governing body of Freemasonry within the state of Iowa, has its offices at the museum.

Founded in 1844, the Grand Lodge was actually in the Territory of Iowa at the time as Iowa did not gain statehood until two years later.^[14] Before the Grand Lodge of Iowa could be started, those that were interested within the Territory petitioned the Grand Lodge of Missouri for subordinate lodges. Scholars that are interested in Masonic history typically know of this Grand Lodge in particular because of the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum, which has a significant collection of Masonic and non-Masonic artifacts.^{[citation needed]}

It is also noteworthy that the first four lodges operated under the Grand Lodge of Missouri before this Grand Lodge was able to be formed. The lineage for how all was founded is as follows as an excerpt from chapter III Genealogy of Iowa Masonry of the History of the Grand Lodge of Iowa (Page 49):

We read our pedigree in this way: The Grand Lodge of Scotland, formed of ‘time immemorial’ lodges in 1730, chartered the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Carolina in 1761, and that became independent in 1787. Tennessee was formed out of North Carolina Lodges in 1813, Missouri out of· Tennessee lodges in 1821, Iowa out of Missouri lodges in 1844, and Dakota out of Iowa lodges in 1875.^[14]