43 Items Tagged

Secret Society

The Cincinnati home of Quaker and abolitionist Levi Coffin, seen here around 1905, was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad Was the Ultimate Conspiracy to Southern Enslavers

And justified the most extreme responses.

Colin Dickey July 11, 2023

London, England

Pamela Colman Smith's Fireplace

Inside a London bookstore, a fireplace that once belonged to the illustrator responsible for a famous set of tarot cards.

The Virginia City, Nevada, headquarters of E Clampus Vitus still stands in the middle of the town. According to officials, E Clampus Vitus is the only one of the remaining nineteenth-century fraternal orders that is growing in the twenty-first century.

The 19th-Century Secret Society Preserving the History of the West

The irreverent, all-male E Clampus Vitus commemorates overlooked people and events.

Shoshi Parks June 29, 2022

Alchemists were a puzzling bunch. Take, for instance, this 1618 engraving by Matthaeus Merian the Elder, which is full of alchemical secrets encoded in complex symbols.

7 Puzzles That Perplexed People for Centuries

From the secrets of Venice’s codebreakers to China’s intricately carved puzzle balls, these historical ciphers will inspire your curiosity.

Sarah Durn May 3, 2022

Pembroke, Maine

Reversing Hall Agrarian Library

An agricultural research library housed in a former Odd Fellows Lodge.

Shepherdstown Public Library

Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Shepherdstown Public Library

The "All-Seeing Eye of God" symbol on this library is a clue to one of the many former lives of this building.

The abbey exterior, featuring the rose window.

Sermoneta, Italy

Abbazia di Valvisciolo (Valvisciolo Abbey)

Knights Templar are visible inside this stunning Cistercian abbey.

A New Crusade

How the mysterious, millennium-old, stateless Order of Malta outlived its contemporaries and established a place in the modern Middle East.

Ariel Sophia Bardi September 29, 2019

The entrance.

Roxbury, New York

Villa Sposa

The former home of a disgraced local priest now hosts a mysterious secret supper club.

Hermitage of Poggio Conte, dug in the tuff.

Ischia di Castro, Italy

Eremo di Poggio Conte (Poggio Conte Hermitage)

A dreamlike medieval church dug into the tuff rock, with unusual carvings and possible traces of the Templar knights.

Tree-shaped tombstones in Miami City Cemetery.

Why Some Gravestones Are Shaped Like Tree Stumps

When nature and secret societies get together.

Sarah Laskow July 17, 2018

The 7 symbol in front of the Jefferson statue in the Rotunda.

Charlottesville, Virginia

University of Virginia's Seven Society

The story behind the mysterious symbol painted in front of the historic university's famous Rotunda.

Enjoying a meal and drinks together at a txoko.

Step Inside These Members-Only Temples of Basque Gastronomy

For centuries, txokos have been crucial to shaping culinary traditions.

Elizabeth Hlavinka June 21, 2018

Staircase Model (France), mid–late 19th century; carved, joined, turned, bent, and planed oak; H x W x D: 52 x 71 x 44 cm (20 1/2 x 27 15/16 x 17 5/16 in.); Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw; 2007-45-10

Marvel at Tiny, Perfect Staircases Made by a Secret Society of French Woodworkers

Who are the compagnons?

Natasha Frost March 14, 2018

The cemetery.

Black Hawk, Colorado

Knights of Pythias Cemetery

The burial grounds of a secret society includes fences topped with fake Tesla balls.

International Temple of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Washington, D.C.

International Temple of the Order of the Eastern Star

Obscure Freemasons still live in D.C.’s largest private residence.

The Hoo-Hoo International Office and Museum

Gurdon, Arkansas

Hoo-Hoo International Office and Museum

The strange and snarky traditions of the lumber industry's fraternal order began with five men waiting for a train here in Arkansas.

Manueline church.

Tomar, Portugal

Convento de Cristo

The medieval castle built as headquarters for the Pope's secretive Knights Templar.