A PRESERVAÇÃO DO PATRIMÔNIO CULTURAL MAÇÔNICO A PARTIR DE COLEÇÕES E MUSEUS.

Masonic organizations preserve a set of cultural assets that make it possible to understand the institution and its historical trajectory. Some of these spaces are home to museums, with masonic collections preserved in historical museums in general. However, such collections and museums lack studies that analyze their history and representation. This work presents a survey of Brazilian cultural institutions that preserve objects and collections related to Freemasonry. The exploratory study is developed from bibliographical and documentary surveys, associated with research in databases on museums and museological collections, in addition to consultations with the museological documentation sectors. In general, the study presents a contextualization of Freemasonry, observing conceptual and historical aspects; a characterization of the Masonic collections and, finally, a survey of the main institutions that hold masonic collections at the national and international levels. It is observed, therefore, that the historical collections related to Freemasonry are preserved in institutions managed by Freemasonry, and there are also collections present in museums institutions of history in general, such as the national museums and that this is a field of investigation yet to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]