National Heritage Museum Symposium

The National Heritage Museum in Lexington (Massachussets, USA) will host the conference on 'New Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism' op 9 April 2010: 'The symposium seeks to present the newest research on American fraternal groups from the past through the present day. By 1900, over 250 American fraternal groups existed, numbering six million members. The study of their activities and influence in the United States, past and present, offers the potential for new interpretations of American society and culture'. Speakers are:

- Jessica Harland-Jacobs (Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida/author of Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1717-1927): 'Worlds of Brothers',
- Damien Amblard (doctoral student, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York), 'French Counter-Enlightenment Intellectuals and American Antimasonry: A Transatlantic Approach, 1789-1800',
- Hannah M. Lane (Assistant Professor, Mount Allison University), 'Freemasonry and Identity/ies in 19th-
Century New Brunswick and Eastern Maine',
- Nicholas Bell (Curator, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum), 'An Ark of the New Republic',
- David Bjelajac (Professor of Art History, George Washington University), 'Freemasonry, Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and the Fraternal Ethos of American Art',
- Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch (Assistant Professor of History, University of Michigan – Flint), 'Brothers of a Vow: Secret Fraternal Orders in Antebellum Virginia',
- Kristofer Allerfeldt (Exeter University), 'Nationalism, Masons, Klansmen and Kansas in the 1920s'.

The registration deadline is 24 March 2010. For more information, contact Claudia Roche at croche@monh.org.