Unless you have been asleep, you surely know by now that Dan Brown has released his latest thriller, The Lost Symbol, which follows a professor as he chases a series of Masonic clues around the nation’s capital. The book had a print run of five million copies and has generated intense media interest around the world.

Closer to home, we have our own missing Masonic mystery: How many Masonic aprons were owned by George Washington, and where have they been stored all these many years?

As described in Brown’s book, George Washington was not only the country’s first president, he was the country’s first Masonic president. In the book’s first chapter, the protagonist is led into the statue room in the U.S. Capitol. There he finds a sawn-off hand pointing toward the fresco on the rotunda ceiling. At the center of this feast of color and heavenly figures George Washington is featured in near god-like form, wearing his Masonic apron.

Historians say Washington bequeathed two Masonic aprons. Up until now, one was thought to have been kept in the Masonic lodge in Alexandria, Va., the other at the lodge in Philadelphia, Pa.

Most Masonic experts agree that the apron given to Washington by General Lafayette and worn at the cornerstone ceremony of the US Capitol is in Alexandria. A more ornate, “Oriental-styled apron” was kept at the lodge in Philadelphia. But the websites of both lodges proudly proclaim that theirs has the Lafayette apron, though only one was in fact given to Washington. The case was closed.

That is until now.

Late last year the Masonic lodge in Shepherdstown W.Va., Mt. Nebo 91, contacted the Washington Masonic Memorial in the District of Columbia. They claimed to have one of “the” George Washington aprons and were seeking authentication. They said that upon the president’s death, this apron passed to George’s brother, Charles, and then to George’s wife Mildred, and then to her husband Lieutenant Thomas Hubbard, who served as Worshipful Master of the Lodge and who left the apron in the care of the brotherhood. And there the apron stayed, for the next two hundred years, unknown to but a few, and kept far away from the eyes of the public.

Throughout the years, Masonic literature makes numerous references to the apron in Shepherdstown. In one 1844 document, the apron was said to be on display in Jefferson County during a Mason meeting in a deep cave near Charles Town. In another, written in 1855, the Grand Master of the Virginia fraternity was said to have worn the apron for President Taylor during the unveiling of the Washington equestrian statue on Capitol Square. In 1892, the apron was sent to the Warren Lodge No. 150 in Minnesota, and described as follows:

The apron is a beautiful piece of needlework, of usual size, the body being of white satin bordered with a strip of black silk, nearly an inch in width, and ruffled and lined with dark cloth. The square and compass is worked in silk and gold thread. The stars and stripes and the French tricolor are embroidered in colors above the square and compass; a wreath of vine encompassing all. It was the handiwork of the lady members of the family of Lafayette and was greatly prized by Washington in consequence.

A short time later the apron returned to Shepherdstown, now encased in a beautiful dark wooden frame filled with Masonic carvings: the all-seeing eye, signs of the zodiac, unfinished pyramids and “L” shaped rules.

[The following photograph was posted on the Mt Nebo 91 website and it shows two local masons standing in front of the apron alleged to be owned by George Washington]

Why does it matter who has the apron? Beside the fact that the apron, if it is indeed the authenticated one, would stand as an extremely rare, 230-year-old Masonic icon, it would serve as a key artifact dating from the earliest years of the Republic.

According to Mark Tabbert, curator of the Washington Memorial, the issue of which is “the” apron is more than historical pedantry. “Saying that the [Shephersdtown] apron is George Washington’s, is the same as accusing someone of murder before going to trial,” he said. He added, that revealing the possible identity of the Shepherdstown apron could put the lodge “in danger” and “upset a lot of people.”

Alexandria Lodge No 22, believes that they have “the” George Washington apron. When it was suggested that a small lodge in Shepherdstown claimed to have a Washington apron, John Olson, lodge secretary said: “It may have been made ten years ago for all we know. A copy. It would be easy to do. We know we have the original apron.”

Tabbert said he had visited the Shepherdstown Lodge twice, and had examined the lodge’s documents over a period of a year, but until he had the apron in his own hands, and could examine it himself, he was not prepared to comment. He added, “There is a lot of good evidence to say that it did belong to George Washington.”

Inside the lodge in Shepherdstown, at the portal to the wood-lined inner sanctum, a large portrait of George Washington hangs from the wall. He is wearing his Masonic apron, the original of which hangs on a wall not 20 feet away. The picture was created in the 1870s, almost a hundred years since Washington was given the apron. The point made by the painter is clear: “It was Washington’s apron, and we have it.”

The masons in Shepherdstown are undecided. If it is indeed the first president’s apron, should they keep it in the lodge where it would continue to oversee the mysteries that take place before it? Or should it be loaned, probably permanently, to a museum in Washington D.C., where it would be kept safe and available for study and research?

Typically, younger Masons want to see the artifact protected. The elder generation whose fathers and grandfathers spent many evenings participating in rituals close to the framed apron, want to hold on to the ancient treasure.

Like most things Masonic, this generational split likely won’t play out in public. Although the fate of the (Shepherdstown) George Washington apron may temporarily be revealed to a wider audience, the apron itself will soon fade again into the background, a favored totem to be honored by those not-so-eager to share their inner workings with the outside world.