Join Adam Kendall for a biographical deep dive into one of California Freemasonry’s most unsung—and misunderstood—pioneers. Through Benjamin Hyam’s forays into Masonic politics, obscure high-degree rites, and a little-known alliance with the famous esotericist John Yarker, Kendall paints a picture of the power dynamics of the 19^thcentury fraternal experience and sheds light on the complex yet subtle network of people and events that influenced the character of a growing nation.

Adam Kendall is a California-based historian and Freemason, a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, and the editor of the Scottish Rite Research Society quarterly, The Plumbline. Additionally, he serves as second vice president of the Philalethes Society. His publications and lectures concern the more obscure relationships between American popular culture, social movements, and fraternal societies during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.