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Everywhere I look, fezzes!

Since our last update in October, the fez museum has moved to a new home. We are still sorting through many of the boxes while attempting to keep the collection safe and sound. In the mean time, we discovered several fezzes that were purchased during 2020 that we hadn’t yet posted. That means more fez based excitement for you!

We start over in the Prince Hall Ladies Imperial Court exhibit (formerly known as the Daughters of Isis)  with a Past Imperial Commandress fez. If you’ve every wanted to feel fez envy, this rhinstone encrusted hat will definitely give you the vapors! While you are there, you can also check out the addition of a Council of Crusaders fez, worn by Prince Hall ladies related to a Knights Templar.

Keeping with the ladies auxiliary theme, we’ve also added a new short-style Grotto-ettes fez over in the Grotto exhibit. Somehow we just know these ladies liked to party!

For those looking for something more spiritual, we’ve added a relatively rare blue Knights of the All Seeing Eye fez. This group has a fascinating history that you definitely need to explore.

Hot on the heels of our recent purchase of a red fez, we’ve added a black Dramatic Order Knights of Omar fez. It’s an usual design that we haven’t encountered before, making it perfect for the collection.

Next up, we have a variation on the fezzes used by the AHEPA.  This new piece was owned by a District Governor and has some unusual embroidery.

Last, but certainly not least, is a completely new exhibit. This space, dedicated to the Order of the Eastern Star, now displays a very old and very rare Patrol fez. Though in poor condition, it makes a great addition to our humble museum.

For those that are curious, this site now details more than 225 different fezzes. The full collection contains even more hats than this, as only interesting variations are shown here. We are proud to be the internet’s most complete guide to fraternal headgear.

That’s all for this update, folks! Keep checking back. You never know when we’ll add more fezzes!

 

2021-02-20T18:12:46+00:00February 20th, 2021|Updates|Comments Off on Everywhere I look, fezzes!

COVID Can’t Keep Us Down!

Home, Drink, Eat – Page 2 – Have You Met Charlie?Back in March, just as the pandemic started, we finally took some time to update this website. Since that time, we’ve continued with our fezzy endeavors. The pandemic turned out to be quite the time for fez collecting! We’re pleased to be adding seven new fezzes to the site with this update. Let’s dive into the new additions.

We’re excited to add a Knights of Peter Claver fez to the collection. This helps to round out this exhibit and show the primary style of fez used by the organization.

The Knights of the Macabees received a rare addition, with a molded red fez, embroidered with bullion thread. Definitely check this one out!

The Imperial Order of Muscovites has long been a primary interest of the Fez Museum. We recently acquired a rare, white Muscovites fez at auction. There are only a few of these fezzes in existence, so we are very excited to have one in our collection.

Shriners fezzes often pass our desk, and we usually don’t accept them as gifts. But, an Aladdin Shrine fez was recently added to the collection because it provides a unique look into a manufacturing technique.

Grotto Ladies Auxiliary  fezzes are a strange sub-genre that we love collecting. These low profile fezzes are very different. We have a new one from Kallipolis Grotto in Washington, D.C., now on display.

Everyone wants to be a Grand Poohbah, right? Well, the Sciots had a great sense of humor and created a Pooh Bah fez for someone in their Fresno Pyramid. We love this piece and hope that you do too!

Last, but certainly not least, is the addition of a Philadelphia Lambskin Club fez, courtesy of friend of the museum Tyler Anderson. It’s a cool, kitschy fez with a piece of Masonic apron sewn directly onto the fez.

That’s it for now. We are continuing to actively source fezzes for the collection. Keep checking back… you never know when an update might occur!

 

2020-10-03T19:00:11+00:00October 3rd, 2020|Updates|Comments Off on COVID Can’t Keep Us Down!

Like a Fezzy Phoenix, we rise!

Holy cats! where did the time go! It has been almost two full years since our last update to this website. That’s a long time! But, thanks to the Corona Virus and a slow down in fraternal activity, your trusty curator has found himself with a little extra time on his hands. Since our last update, we have continued to buy fezzes and scour local antique malls for fraternal finds. We hope the wait was worth it, as we bring you no less than nine new fezzes, including one completely new exhibit!

First up is one of our most exciting finds – two Past Supreme High Priestess fezzes from the Ladies Oriental Shrine of North America. The Supreme Worthy High Priestess is the highest ranking officer of this organization and therefore these fezzes are very rare. To have obtained two of them in one shot is very exciting!

Next up we have our newest exhibit, detailing the history of the little known Dramatic Order Knights of Omar. This group is attached to the African American Knights of Pythias and offers a fraternal experience devoted to fun and fellowship. This fez was a special find indeed!

In the Order of Alhambra exhibit, we’ve added a Past Regional Directors fez, inching us every closer to a complete collection from this body. All we need now is a Supreme Officer’s fez, and a Past Supreme presiding officer’s fez and we’ll have them all!

We’ve also added new fezzes to the Masonic Youth Groups (two new Job’s Daughters examples), our Occupational Groups exhibit (a States Fleet Masonic Club fez), the Junior American Mechanics, and a very fine Princes of Bagdad fez from Lancaster, PA.

We hope you enjoy this update. While we can’t guarantee that we’ll be timelier with future additions, know that we do respond to all communications from this website and remain on the hunt for our next fezzy find!

Excelsior!

2020-03-17T23:43:33+00:00March 17th, 2020|General Info, Updates|Comments Off on Like a Fezzy Phoenix, we rise!

We’re not dead yet!

 It’s a been a while, fezzy friends – nearly a year in fact. But, the Fez Museum continues to plod along. We’ve been acquiring fewer pieces as time goes on, but we are still collecting. This is a long overdue update for sure and we should have some additional updates coming in the next several months as we catch up on our backlog of new acquisitions.

To start, we have a major update to the Religious Groups section, specifically several fezzes dealing with the Nuwabian movement. We came into a cache of fezzes from this group and we’re excited to share them with you, even if they come from a dubious piece of history.

Then, we’re happy to share a special, new fez to the collection – the curator’s own fez from the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, the fun side branch of the Knights of Pythias.

As always, we thank you for your continued support and interest in our site!

2020-03-17T23:43:56+00:00May 30th, 2018|General Info, Updates|Comments Off on We’re not dead yet!

A long overdue fezzy update!

Well hello there, intrepid reader! It’s been a while since we’ve updated the fez museum, but we’ve picked up a few interesting new pieces that we wanted to share with you.

First, stop over to the Ladies Shrine organizations page where we’ve added a basic Shrine Guild member’s fez. Passing from that, we find the Boo Hum Dit Dum added to the occupational groups section. This organization was hard to track down and we’d love to know more about it! Lastly, we’ve added a whole new exhibit on the Knights of Peter Claver, a traditionally African-American lay Catholic fraternal order.

Thanks for checking back and your support of sharing fraternal history!

2017-07-09T16:47:19+00:00July 9th, 2017|Updates|Comments Off on A long overdue fezzy update!
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