Symposiums
Registration Information
Our Silver Jubilee Celebration will occur on Saturday, March 15, 2025. This Symposium will be held at the Freemasons Cultural Center at the Masonic Village at Elizabethtown.
This event is open to Freemasons (including Entered Apprentices and Fellowcrafts), their significant others, and their guests.
Please recognize that a cost is incurred to the program for your registration. If you pre-register and subsequently determine that you will be unable to attend, please have the Masonic courtesy to cancel your reservation by the same method and providing the same information.
Schedule for the day:
8:00 AM – Registration Opens
9:00 AM – Opening Ceremonies
9:20 AM – Presentation by Bro. Timothy Winkle
10:20 AM – Break
10:30 AM – Private Screening of “Join or Die”
12:15 PM – Break for Lunch
1:30 PM – Reconvene
1:45 PM – Interactive Dialogue with Ms. Rebecca Davis, Director & Producer
2:30 PM – Question & Answer Session with Speakers
3:00 PM – Adjournment of Session
5:00 PM – Social Hour
5:30 PM – Silver Jubilee Banquet
7:00 PM – Keynote Address by Bro. David Harrison
8:00 PM – Closing Ceremonies
Lunch ($20) will be served at noon and the program will be completed by 3:00 p.m. All Masons are welcome to attend. Dress is coat and tie.
A special 25th Anniversary Banquet will be held the evening of Saturday, March 15, 2025, in the Brossman Ballroom at the Masonic Village at Elizabethtown. Registration details for this event are forthcoming.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER*
*Note – You will select your meal choice for the banquet after payment is completed.
A livestream link will be made available closer to the event. Please note that the film will not be live streamed, but is available on Netflix.
Speaker Information
Bro. Timothy Winkle
Aprons in the Attic: Collecting Communities at the Smithsonian Institution
Tim Winkle is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, focusing on firefighting, law enforcement, and community organizations, including the history of American fraternalism. Prior to this, he worked as a cataloger with the Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London, and he served for several years as 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.
Rebecca Davis
Join or Die
This presentation includes a special screening of the feature length documentary “Join or Die.” The documentary will not be live streamed, but is available for viewing on Netflix. Rebecca Davis, a producer of the film, will then join the Academy live, in person, for a Q&A session. Learn more at https://www.joinordiefilm.com/
In this feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America’s civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking “Bowling Alone” research into America’s decades-long decline in community connections.
Bro. & Dr. David Harrison
25th Anniversary Key Note Address – “Lost Rites of Freemasonry during the Age of Enlightenment”
Dr. Harrison will be speaking at the banquet, held the evening of the 15th. This portion of the event will not be livestreamed.
Dr David Harrison is a UK based Masonic historian archaeologist who has written six books on the history of Freemasonry, and contributed many papers and articles on the subject to various journals and magazines. His work appears in Philalethes Magazine, Freemasonry Today, MQ Magazine, The Square, Knight Templar Magazine, Heredom, and New Dawn Magazine. Harrison has also appeared on TV and radio providing expertise and insight into the subject of Freemasonry.
Having gained his PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2008, which focused on the development of English Freemasonry. His thesis was subsequently published in March 2009 as a book entitled The Genesis of Freemasonry. A follow-up work entitled The Transformation of Freemasonry was published the following year. Both works received critical acclaim. His next work -a book which dealt with the Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the Wigan Grand Lodge was published in 2012, followed by A Quick Guide to Freemasonry which was published in November 2013. A fifth book on the York Grand Lodge was published in 2014, and his latest work Freemasonry and Fraternal Societies was published in 2015.
Upcoming Academy Dates
Saturday, March 15, 2025 – 25th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Saturday, March 21, 2026
