Skull and Bones
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- For the pirate flag see Jolly Roger; for the international poison symbol see skull and crossbones.
Skull and Bones is one of the secret societies based at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Names
Skull and Bones is known by many names, including The Order of Death, The Order, Cooperation Star, The Eulogian Club, and Lodge 322. Initiates are most commonly known as Bonesmen, Knights of Eulogia, Boddle boys, and GBdBs (Great Bones (of the) Boodle).
On an initiate's first day in Bones they are assigned a name, which they will be known as for the rest of their life. Names that are regularly used are: Magog, which is assigned to the initiate with the most experience with the opposite sex; Gog, which is assigned to the least sexually experienced; Long Devil, for the tallest; Boaz, for varsity American football captains; and Little Devil for the shortest. Bonesmen have often assumed names of mythological and legendary figures.
History
The society was founded in 1832 by Phi Beta Kappa pledges William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft. [1] The first Skull and Bones class, or "cohort," was the very next year, 1832-33. The society was all male until 1992.
Traditionally, the Yale Daily News published the names of newly "tapped" members of all major secret societies at Yale, but this practice has been abandoned in recent times with further publicity about the organization. The society's current membership rosters and activities are not disclosed to the public. The society inducts only incoming seniors, during the late junior year prior to their graduation.
Its corporate name is the Russell Trust Association. In 1943, its trustees were exempted from filing corporate reports with the Connecticut secretary of state. In 1999 it had assets of $4,133,246. It owns Deer Island, one of the Thousand Islands in the waterway between the United States and Canada, which was given to the Order by one of its early benefactor families.
Significant members
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Many people believe that the membership of Skull and Bones had been totally secret. However the membership for each year is held in the Yale University archives. The membership rosters cover the years 1833-1985, with some additional years. The top repetitive families in Skull and Bones are also known because in 1985 a disgruntled Skull and Bones member leaked rosters to a private researcher, Antony C. Sutton. This leaked 1985 data was kept privately for over 15 years, as Sutton feared that the photocopied pages could somehow identify the member who leaked it. The information was finally reformatted as an appendix in the book Fleshing out Skull and Bones by editor, researcher, and writer Kris Millegan, who published it in 2003.
Both U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry are members of Skull and Bones.
Bush reportedly appointed 11 Skull and Bones members to his Administration in his first term. Their names are Evan Griffith Galbraith (S&B 1950), William H. Donaldson (S&B 1953), George Herbert Walker III (S&B 1953), Jack Edwin McGregor (S&B 1956), Victor Ashe (S&B 1967), Roy Leslie Austin (S&B 1968), Robert McCallum, Jr. (S&B 1968), Rex Cowdry (S&B 1968), Edward E. McNally (S&B 1979), David Batshaw Wiseman (S&B 1984), and James Emanuel Boasberg (S&B 1985) [2]
Various U.S. Senators and Congressmen have been members of Skull and Bones, the following list includes a few bonesmen who served as U.S. Congressman: Thomas W. L. Ashley (S&B 1948), Jonathan Brewster Bingham (S&B 1936), David Boren (S&B 1963), Frank B. Brandegee (S&B 1885), James Buckley (S&B 1944), Prescott Bush (S&B 1917), William Wallace Crapo (S&B 1886), John Chaffee (S&B 1947), LeBaron Bradford Colt (S&B 1868), John Sherman Cooper (S&B 1923), Lowndes Henry Davis (S&B 1860), Clarence Deming (S&B 1872), Chauncey Depew (S&B 1856), Benjamin Tucker Eames (S&B 1843), Constantine Canaris Esty (S&B 1845), William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837), Orris S. Ferry (S&B 1844), Charles Newell Fowler (S&B 1876), Richard Jacobs Haldeman (S&B 1851), Anthony Higgins (S&B 1861), James William Husted (S&B 1892), Stephen Wright Kellogg (S&B 1846), John Forbes Kerry (S&B 1967), Thruston Ballard Morton (S&B 1954), Morehead Patterson (S&B 1920), Robert A. Taft I (S&B 1910), John Martin Vorys, (S&B 1918), James Jeremiah Wadsworth (S&B 1927), George P. Wetmore (S&B 1867), and William Barrett Washburn (S&B 1844).
The following members of Skull and Bones served as Secretaries of Commerce. President Reagan appointed Malcolm Baldridge, while President Truman appointed William Averell Harriman (S&B 1913). Rogers Morton, the brother of Thruston B. Morton (S&B 1954) served both as Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Commerce. Both he and his brother Thruston served as Chairman of the Republican Party, Thruston from 1959 to 1961 and Rogers from 1969 to 1971. As noted in the above paragraph both Rogers and Thruston served as U.S. Senators. Rogers would also serve in the House of Representatives.
Property owned
The Skull and Bones "Tomb"
Image:Skull and Bones tomb.jpg
Beginning in 1833, one of the responsibilities of the cohort of fifteen seniors is to select fifteen new junior members to replace them, which is called being tapped for the society. For a year, Bones members meet at least weekly and conduct long self-analysis of each other and critique. This is aimed at creating a long term bond between them as they leave the university instead of during their stay at the university. Bones members are reported to be forced to reveal their innermost secrets and their "sexual biography" to one another.
In the tomb with each other over the span of the year, members dine off a set of Hitler's silverware according to "dissident" Bones members interviewed by Alexandra Robbins for her book Secrets of The Tomb [p. 5], consuming expensive gourmet meals. Members are given new code names. The members call themselves "Knights," and simultaneously call everyone else in the world at large "barbarians". Another dissociation is that clocks in the Bones "tomb" run intentionally five minutes ahead of the rest of the world, to give the members an ongoing sense that the Bonesmen's space is a totally separate world--and a world just a bit ahead of the curve of the rest of the "barbarians" outside.
Partially, "tapping" is a response to visible or anticipated excellence, thus it could be considered meritocratic. However, since a great many members of the membership in this secret society are drawn over and over from the same families as the "core" of the group, it is a typical nested secret society with "porch brethren" on the outside making a power network for those in the inner administrative levels of the secret society. Claims have been made that when the senior delegation tapped the first class of women in the early '90s, the trustees barred all of the senior members from returning to the tomb. Because they were locked out, they humbly asked members of Manuscript Society, Yale's youngest tombed group, to use their building for meetings. Though this is usually unheard of, Manuscript allowed this for a short time, as a gesture of civility and respect.
Their house is located on Yale's campus at 64 High Street (Template:Coor dms). The property is registered under RTA Incorporated.
Trivia
- The only known chapters of Skull and Bones outside Yale were a chapter at nearby Wesleyan University in 1870, which in 1872 became an independent society under the name 'Theta Nu Epsilon', and a chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, the latter of which is still in existence, and is referred to as "323."
- Until recently, Bones membership was strictly all-male. In 1992, the society began admitting women, against the protests of many notable alumni.
- Skull & Bones inspired the secret society in the film The Skulls.