Society president Eleanor Voss, elected for her stewardship of the Bellweather Fire Collection.
Patrons, curators, legal trustees, discreet acquisitions agents, and a younger membership challenging the rules.
Preserve rare material, protect the city's reputation, and decide who is qualified to interpret its past.
A private historical society that began as a charitable fund for displaced families and gradually became a keeper of objects without provenance.
Society president Eleanor Voss, elected for her stewardship of the Bellweather Fire Collection.
Patrons, curators, legal trustees, discreet acquisitions agents, and a younger membership challenging the rules.
AlliesPrivate museums, legacy donors, selected cathedral trustees.
OppositionPublic restitution campaigns, nosy journalists, and anyone who asks why an object cannot be catalogued.
Private collections, legal counsel, donor networks, storage, and invitations to rooms others cannot enter.
Conservation cases, private security, collection vans, and provenance documents with suspiciously consistent gaps.
The former Bellweather Exchange Club, a narrow limestone mansion with an inaccessible third-floor archive.
VehiclesCollection vans, member cars, and one unmarked heritage shuttle.
UniformFormal civilian dress with a discreet third-bell pin worn at private events.
SymbolThree bells, the lowest left open.
Society patrons, conservators, security escorts, display cases, archive cabinets, and a collection van.