Board and Visiting Scholars
An avid collector of fraternal materials, Seth is best known for the "Museum of Fezology," a website devoted to celebrating the history and cultural implications of the small felt, tasseled hats. The site features items from Seth's own extensive collection of fezzes, from the apparel of the American Woodmen to the masonic White Shrine of Jerusalem. Seth's other collecting interests include banners, jewels, and ephemera related to fraternal organizations that are less well-known. He is a frequent guest speaker for fraternal podcasts and events. Seth has been published in the Journal of the Masonic Society, The Knight Templar Magazine, The Freemasons Victoria, and others, and he co-edited the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania F. & A.M.'s newest edition of "The Exemplar: A Guide to a Masons Actions." Seth holds membership in more than 30 fraternal organizations, serving many as an officer.
Ken is the founder of the J.H. Rathbone Museum and Resource Center, which is devoted to the preservation and exhibition of Global fraternal collections. Ken has been active in fraternal organizations for many years, including the Knights of Pythias, (Past Grand Secretary, Past Supreme Representative, and Knights of the Golden Spur for Indiana), Dramatic Order Knights of Khorrason, (Past Imperial Treasurer, Past Imperial Prince, and current Imperial Secretary). Ken also is a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Sublime Prince (Freemason) and current president of Masonic High Twelve Club #99, Lafayette, IN., and the B.P.O. Elk. Ken also serves as a director of the Historical Society for American Fraternalism as well as the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
Brent is a Master Mason and 33° Scottish Rite Mason who was the first American elected Worshipful Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of England, the first Masonic research lodge. He was the founder of the Scottish Rite Research Society and edits Heredom, its annual transactions. Brent has written extensively on Freemasonry and served for many years as the editor of The Scottish Rite Journal. He is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry and co-author of Is it True What They Say About Freemasonry?: The Methods of Anti-Masons. In addition to his activity in Freemasonry, he is a member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and the United Ancient Order of Druids.
Mark has extensive experience with historical collections, beginning with his work for the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, Missouri in 1997. He has since been the Curator of Masonic and Fraternal Collections at the Scottish Rite Masonic National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, and since 2006 works as the Director of Archives and Exhibitions at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2005 he published American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities with the National Heritage Museum and New York University Press, and in 2012 he co-edited Secret Societies in America & Other Foundational Studies in Fraternalism. An active Freemason for over two decades, Mark is a Past Master of two Masonic lodges and a past president of the Masonic Library & Museum Association. Having joined Theta Chi in college, he is now assisting to preserve the national chapter's archives. Mark currently acts as a director for the Historical Society for American Fraternalism.
Wendy is an author, archivist and artist, specializing in scenic art and stage systems for historic theaters in North America and Europe. For the past thirty-three years, Wendy has documented, preserved, and painted scenes for a variety of performance venues, including fraternal lodges, vaudeville theaters, opera houses, ethnic halls, and film. Her focus is the design, manufacture, and restoration of painted illusion for the stage, showing the intimate relationship between scenic art, stage machinery and lighting systems for productions that range from Masonic degree work to grand circus spectacles. The preservation of theatrical and fraternal heritage, as well as the continued training of artists in historic painting methodologies and materials, is her passion. Wendy is the president of Historic Stage Services, LLC, a company specializing in historic scenery and stage systems, with current projects at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado, and the Municipal Theatre in Kortrijk, Belgium. Wendy is also the founder of Drypigment.net, an online platform to share current research and theatrical discoveries from around the world. As an author, Wendy's past publications include The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture and Theatre (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2018), as well as numerous articles for InitiativeTheatre Museum Berlin's Die Vierte Wand, United States Institute for Theatre Technology's TD&T, Theatre Historical Society of America's Marquee, the Scottish Rite Research Society's Plumbline and Heredom, and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction's Scottish Rite Journal. Wendy is a member of the International Organization of Scenographers, Technicians and Theatre Architects (OISTAT), United States Institute of Theatre Technology, the Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology, the Scottish Rite Research Society, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Tim Winkle has been a curator with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History since 2010, with a focus on fraternal groups and other community organizations. Prior to this, he worked as a cataloger with the Museum of Freemasonry in London, and he served for several years as the archivist for the historic collections held by Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22 in Alexandria, Virginia. Tim has researched and written on the connections between fraternal groups and museum collections in the Early Republic, and he recently co-authored an article on Alexander von Humboldt's relationship to Freemasonry for the International Review of Humboldt Studies.
