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Wolf's Head (secret society)

January 18, 2023

Wolf's Head Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key.[1] Active undergraduate membership is elected annually with sixteen Yale University students, typically rising seniors. Honorary members are elected.

Wolf's Head Society
Wolf's Head "New Hall" - architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, designed circa 1924
Formation1883; 140 years ago (1883)
TypeSecret society
local
HeadquartersYale University
Location
Region served
United States

The current delegation spends its year together answerable to an alumni association.[2][3][4] Some past members have gained prominence in athletics, business, the fine and literary arts, higher education, journalism, and politics.

History

Fifteen rising seniors from the Yale Class of 1884, with help from members of the Yale Class of 1883 who were considered publicly possible taps for the older societies, abetted the creation of The Third Society. The society changed its name to Wolf's Head five years later.[5][6][7]

The effort was aided by more than 300 Yale College alumni[8][9] and a few Yale Law School faculty, in part to counter the dominance of the Skull and Bones Society in undergraduate and university affairs.[7][10]

The founding defeated the last attempt by the administration or the student body to abolish secret or senior societies at Yale.[11] The tradition continued of creating and sustaining a society if enough potential rising seniors thought they had been overlooked: Bones was established in 1832 after a dispute over selections for Phi Beta Kappa awards; Scroll and Key Society, the second society at Yale, was established in 1841 after a dispute over elections to Bones.

The Third Society's founding was motivated in part by sentiment among some young men that they deserved insider status. "[A] certain limited number were firmly convinced that there had been an appalling miscarriage of justice in their individual omission from the category of the elect," some founders agreed.[7][12][13]

Antecedents

Before the founding in 1780 at Yale of the Connecticut Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the second chapter established after that society's founding in 1776 (which still practices a secret handshake among members),[14] Yale College students established and joined literary societies.[15] By the 1830s, the campus literary societies Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and Calliopean had lost stature. Calliopean folded in 1853, and the others shut down after the American Civil War.[16] Calliopean, Linonia, and Brothers in Unity existed respectively: 1819–1853, 1768–1878, and 1735–1868.[17]

From the mid-1840s until 1883, several societies were started, but each failed to sustain the interest of liberal arts students at Yale College, broadly known as the Academical Department.[18] Star and Dart, Sword and Crown, Tea-Kettle, Spade and Grave, and E.T.L. disbanded.[19]

Phi Beta Kappa was inactive at Yale from 1871 to 1884, coinciding in part with a national reorganization of the society.[20] In the 1820s, Anti-Masonic agitation sweeping across the United States prompted PBK to examine the role of secrecy in its proceedings. Associated with PBK's national reorganization in 1881, secrecy disappeared as a signature among all chapters, quelling rivalry with collegiate fraternities, clubs and societies.[21] Hence, secrecy was soon shelved at the Yale chapter.[22] PBK exists today, without any secrecy, as an academic honor society.

Beginning in the 1850s, the Yale undergraduate student body grew more diverse. The college was becoming an institution of national rather than regional importance. Students who hailed from environs beyond New England or who were not Congregationalist or Presbyterian entered the college in large numbers.[23]

The faculty and administration were dominated by alumni of Bones, numbering four out of five faculty members between 1865 and 1916. Bones alumni were university secretaries from 1869 to 1921. Bones alumni were university treasurers for forty-three of the forty-eight years between 1862 - 1910.[24][25] Five of the first six Yale Corporation elected Alumni Fellows were members of Bones.[26]

Dissatisfaction grew: In 1873, The Iconoclast, a student paper published once, October 13, 1873, advocated for the abolition of the society system. It opined: "Out of every class Skull and Bones takes its men...They have obtained control of Yale. Its business is performed by them. Money paid to the college must pass into their hands, and be subject to their will....It is Yale College against Skull and Bones!! We ask all men, as a question of right, which should be allowed to live?"[27][28] The Yale Daily News first appeared on January 28, 1878. A memoir of the first college daily's birth records its first year strategy to "rag" the societies.[29]

The Class of 1884 agreed to support another revolt against the society system with a vote of no confidence to coincide with its graduation. It had been understood that the society system was beyond reform and might well be abolished.

A spirited defense of the society system appeared in the May 1884 issue of The New Englander, written and published by members of Scroll and Key. Several periodicals reported regularly on the situation.[30]

 
Wolf's Head original tomb in 1901, Yale College

Establishment

The initial delegation, including ten Class Day officers from the Class of 1884 and led by Edwin Albert Merritt, met in secret during their senior year with the aid of members of the Class of 1883 who were "eager to start a society provided the evil features of the old societies would be eliminated. [The graduating and rising seniors] were unanimous on this point." Included among the supporters from the Class of 1883 were members touted as sure selections to Bones or Keys by the publishers of the Horoscope, an undergraduate publication that provided feature material on the most likely taps. The pro-society seniors won the Class Day vote, 67 - 50.[31]

The new society was conceived on or about June 5, 1883. Among undergraduates the fledgling group was known as the "Fox and Grapes" for the Aesopian fable of jealousy.[32]

The two older societies suffered by comparison with Wolf's Head.[33] The New Haven Register reported in 1886: "Wolf's Head is not as far out of the world, in respect to its public doings, as are [Bones and Keys]. There is a sufficient veil of secrecy drawn around its mechanism, however, to class it with the secret societies, and this gives it a stability and respectability in Yale College circles that it might not have otherwise...."[34] The society was managed similarly to finals clubs associated with the Sheffield Scientific School; however, it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies.[7]

Early stature

The Third Society sat at the apex of a social pyramid bricked by junior societies (sophomore societies were abolished in 1875, freshman societies in 1880),[35] campus organizations, athletic teams, clubs, and fraternities.[36][37]

In 1888, the society changed its name to Wolf's Head Society, consonant with the approval among undergraduates of the society's pin, a stylized wolf's head on an inverted ankh, an Egyptian hieroglyphic known as the Egyptian Cross or "the key of life". The earliest undergraduate members allowed fellow schoolmates to handle the pin, a specific refutation of pin display by the older societies. Eternal life is symbolized rather than death or erudition. A Roman fasces had been considered as a design element for the pin.[7][38]

Point of view

Many pioneering and subsequent members mocked as "poppycock" (from the Dutch for "soft excrement")[39] the seemingly Masonic-inspired rituals and atmosphere associated with Skull and Bones. In their The Pirates of Penzance prank, Wolf's Head members persuaded the thespian pirate king to display the numbers 322 (part of the emblem of Skull and Bones) below a skull and crossbones at a local theatre.[40] In another example, Yale President A. Whitney Griswold's deprecated the rituals as "bonesy bullshit" and "Dink Stover crap" coloring undergraduate life.[41]

Wolf's Head did maintain many traditional practices, such as the Thursday and Sunday meetings, which were common among its peers. Paul Moore, Jr., long-time Senior Fellow and successor trustee (1964 - 1990) for the Yale Corporation and long-tenured bishop in the Episcopal Church (United States), recalled the night before he first encountered combat in World War II: "I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by [a friend from Harvard] about what went on in Wolf's Head. He could not believe I would hold back such irrelevant secrets the night before I faced possible death."[42][43]

The Halls

Previous Tomb

The "Old Hall" was erected within months of the founding. The older Academical Department societies met originally for decades in rented quarters near campus. Skull and Bones opened its tomb in 1856, more than two decades after its founding.[44] Scroll and Key did likewise; it opened its tomb in 1869 more than two decades after the society's founding.

 
"Old Hall" - designed by McKim, Mead and White, completed in 1884. Purchased by University in 1924.

A building with narrow windows, the "Old Hall" was noted as "the most modern and handsomest" of the society domiciles by The New York Times in 1903. The building was erected in 1884 soon after the founding members secured financing.[7]

The building has stone wall and wrought iron fencing, and is central to the largest secret society compound on campus. The compound commands the most prominent location on campus beyond Harkness Tower, the very icon of Yale,[47] and the Memorial Quadrangle.

Current Tomb

 
Goodhue's evocative Wolf's Head Society building, shown behind its high stone enclosure.

The "New Hall" opened in the mid-1920s and sits fronted by York Street surrounded by the Yale Daily News Briton Hadden Memorial building, and the Yale Drama School and theatre, both gifts to Yale from Edward Harkness.[46] It is near the former homes of the Fence Club (or Psi Upsilon, 224 York Street), DKE (232 York Street) and Zeta Psi (212 York Street).

Membership

The society has been reputed to tap the gregarious "prep school type".[48][49] Past members were associated intimately with the: coeducation of Yale College,[50] establishment of the Yale residential college system and the Harvard house system,[51] founding of the Elizabethan Club,[52] and founding of the Yale Political Union.[53] This was Yale's last all-male society; it has tapped women since the spring of 1992.[54]

Edward John Phelps, Envoy to the Court of St. James's, accepted the offer in 1885 to be namesake to the Wolf's Head alumni association.[7] The Phelps Association, as of January 2016, holds in trust nearly seven million dollars, second among Yale societies or clubs.[55]

Yale societies contrast sharply with Harvard finals clubs on membership criteria. Contributions to undergraduate life has been historically among the criteria for membership in Yale societies. Finals clubs overlook that quality among prospective members.[56][57]

Notable members

 
Tom Steyer (1979), American businessman and liberal political activist
 
David Josiah Brewer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
 
Charles Ives (1898), American modernist composer
 
Edward Harkness (1896), philanthropist and major benefactor to Yale
 
Anson Goodyear (1899), philanthropist and first president of Museum of Modern Art
 
Stephen Vincent Benét (1919) Pulitzer Prize–winning American poet, short story writer, and novelist

Notes

  1. ^ Caro, Robert (1974). The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3. OCLC 834874.
  2. ^ "Dear Wolf's Head", Blog, Yale Daily News, 02 May 2013
  3. ^ [1], article "New book ignites society debate", Britton O'Daly, Yale Daily News, 5 Oct, 2017
  4. ^ "The Choice is Yours", Blog, Yale Daily News, 24 February 2017
  5. ^ "Timeline of Selected Events in the History of Yale University". Resources on Yale History. Yale University Library. March 19, 2010. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  6. ^ Yale Alumni Publications, Inc. "March 2001 Tercentennial Edition - An Irrepressible Urge to Join". Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Andrews, John. History of the Founding of Wolf's Head, Lancaster Press, 1934. Phelps Trust Association archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.
  8. ^ Bulletin of Yale University, New Haven, 15 October 1932, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931 - 1932, pg. 32, Henry Blodget, B.A. 1875, and pg. 44, John Proctor Clarke, B.A. 1878
  9. ^ Obituary Record of Yale University 1924 - 1925, Bulletin of Yale University, New Haven, Twenty-First Series, August 1, 1925, Number Twenty - Two, Abram Heaton Robertson, B.A. 1872, pg. 1316, Gardner Green, B.A. 1873, pg. 1319
  10. ^ John Williams Andrews (2008-04-01). "History of the founding of Wolf's Head". Open Library. OL 6318007M. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  11. ^ Richards, David Alan. Skulls and Keys, Pegasus Books, Ltd. NY, NY, 2017, pp. 284 - 327, "The Solution of Wolf's Head (1883 - 1888)" pp. 284 - 327. ISBN 978-1-68177-517-3
  12. ^ "Changes in Skull and Bones, Famous Yale Society Doubles Size of its House - Addition a Duplicate of Old Building". The New York Times. September 13, 1903. p. 22.
  13. ^ Oren, Dan. Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale, Second Edition. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000. pp. 332-333. ISBN 0-300-08468-4.
  14. ^ Nadrina Ebrahimi, Yale Daily News, "Phi Beta Kappa to induct 25 students", 7 December 2016,
  15. ^ "Welcome | Yale Phi Beta Kappa". Yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  16. ^ Secrets of the Tomb, pp. 36, 38.
  17. ^ Havemeyer, Loomis. "Yale's Extracurricular & Social Organizations, 1780 - 1960" (PDF). Yale Library. pp. 5, 8.
  18. ^ Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths to Power. Back Bay Books, New York and Boston, pp. 61-62. ISBN 0-316-73561-2.
  19. ^ Andrews, p. 75.
  20. ^ Joining the Club. p. 22.
  21. ^ "Phi Beta Kappa - History". Clubs.psu.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  22. ^ "Tombs and Taps, An inside look at Yale's Fraternities, Sororities and Societies". Conspiracyarchive.com. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  23. ^ Stephenson, Louise L. Scholarly Means to Evangelical Ends: The New Haven Scholars and the Transformation of Higher Learning in America.The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, p. 64; ISBN 0-8018-2695-0.
  24. ^ Secrets of the Tomb. pp. 48, 50, 127.
  25. ^ Joining the Club. p. 26.
  26. ^ Skulls and Keys, p. xix
  27. ^ Andrews, p. 39.
  28. ^ Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 2005. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-618-57458-2.
  29. ^ Skulls and Keys, p. 259
  30. ^ Andrews, pp. 58-61.
  31. ^ Andrews, p. 70.
  32. ^ Skulls and Keys, p.293 and p.292
  33. ^ Skulls and Keys, p. 320
  34. ^ Secrets of the Tomb, p. 63.
  35. ^ Andrews, p. 46.
  36. ^ Caro, Robert (1974). The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3. OCLC 834874.
  37. ^ Kabaservice, Geoffrey. The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2004. p. 45. ISBN 0-8050-6762-0.
  38. ^ Secrets of the Tomb. p. 68.
  39. ^ "Poppycock | Definition of Poppycock by Merriam-Webster". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  40. ^ Secrets of the Tomb, pp. 3-4, 67, 84-85.
  41. ^ The Guardians. p. 155.
  42. ^ Yale officers: Founding Trustees and their successors,[www.guides.library.yale.edu]
  43. ^ Moore, Paul. Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 1997. pp. 55-56; ISBN 0-374-23711-5.
  44. ^ Yale Alumni Magazine, May/Jun 2015, "The Origins of the tomb: How Skull and Bones found a home", by David Richards
  45. ^ "Institution for Social and Policy Studies". Yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  46. ^ a b Kelley, Brooks Mather.Yale: A History, Yale University Press, New Haven and London. p. 374. ISBN 0-300-01636-0.
  47. ^ . Yale.edu. Archived from the original on 2000-11-09. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  48. ^ "Inside Eli, or How to Get On at Yale". Yale56.org. 1955–56. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  49. ^ Secrets of the Tomb. p. 69.
  50. ^ "The Guardians". p. 64
  51. ^ Judith Ann Schiff; Yale Alumni Publications, Inc. (May–June 2008). . Yale Alumni Magazine: Old Yale. Archived from the original on 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2013-10-09.
  52. ^ "Real Shakespeare Treasures For Yale" (PDF). The New York Times, November 20, 1911.
  53. ^ The Guardians. p. 51.
  54. ^ "Yale Wolf's Head Admits Women". Deseret News, December 19, 1991.
  55. ^ Business Insider, Jan. 5, 2016, 5:01 ET, by line Abby Jackson
  56. ^ "Eleven Final Clubs: From Pig to Bat | News | the Harvard Crimson".
  57. ^ "YAle's FINEST HOURS | News | the Harvard Crimson".
  58. ^ "The Skulls and Bones Exposed". Scribd.com. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  59. ^ "Leigh Bardugo On 'Ninth House'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  60. ^ Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT, Class of 1957, pg. 47
  61. ^ a b "Memorabilia Yalensis". The Yale Literary Magazine. 84 (6): 269. June 1919. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  62. ^ Skulls and Keys, p. 302
  63. ^ Skull and Keys, pg. 319
  64. ^ Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT - Class of 1929, pg.109
  65. ^ Yale Pot Pourri and Banner yearbook, Class of 1956, pg. 43
  66. ^ The Chosen, p. 653.
  67. ^ Bulletin of Yale University, New Haven 15 October 1932, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931 - 1932
  68. ^ Harvard Crimson, "Yale Society Elections", published May 24, 1895.
  69. ^ "Mayor Erastus Corning: Albany Icon". Webhome.idirect.com. April 21, 1954. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
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  72. ^ Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT - Yale Class of 1949
  73. ^ Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT - Class of 1954, pg. 35
  74. ^ a b c "Dem Bones, Dem Bones...and the Magic of Yale", Harvard.edu, August 30, 2004.
  75. ^ Box/folder number, Mss. A. Conger Goodyear Papers, 1683 - 1964 (bulk 1885 - 1964), Research Library, Buffalo History Museum,
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  79. ^ The Five Roles of Robert Maynard Hutchins, DePaul University Libraries, Volume 42 Issue 2, Winter 1992, DePaul Law Review, Article 9, Jeffrey O'Connell, Thomas E. O'Connell, footnote 62
  80. ^ Henderson, Clayton W. The Charles Ives Tunebook - Second Edition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2008. p. 367; ISBN 978-0-253-35090-9.
  81. ^ Jay (October 10, 2007). "Fire Dick Jauron!: The Continuing Story of Buffalo Dick". Firedickjauron.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2011-08-01.[dubious – discuss]
  82. ^ a b Skull and Keys, p. 319
  83. ^ Joining the Club, pp. 175, 409.
  84. ^ "Google". Retrieved 2016-09-04.
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  86. ^ Andrews, John, The Founding of Wolf's Head Society, Lancaster Press, pg. 70
  87. ^ a b "Caltech obituary - Clark". Caltech.edu; accessed September 14, 2016.
  88. ^ Yale University Banner and Pou Pourri Yearbook, New Haven, CT, Class of 1924, pg. 89
  89. ^ Six Yale Societies Elect 90 Members, New York Times, May 8, 1936
  90. ^ "Yale's Great Oak Sees 'Tap Day' Again", The New York Times. May 21, 1915. p. 8.
  91. ^ Moore, Honor.The Bishop's Daughter, A Memoir, First Edition, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2008. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-393-05984-7.
  92. ^ My Harvard, My Yale, editor, Diana DuBois, chapter "A Touch of Laughter", author, Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Random House, New York, 1982, ISBN 0-394-51920-5
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References

January 18, 2023
wolf, head, secret, society, wolf, head, society, senior, society, yale, university, haven, connecticut, society, reputed, three, societies, yale, along, with, skull, bones, scroll, active, undergraduate, membership, elected, annually, with, sixteen, yale, uni. Wolf s Head Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven Connecticut The society is one of the reputed Big Three societies at Yale along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key 1 Active undergraduate membership is elected annually with sixteen Yale University students typically rising seniors Honorary members are elected Wolf s Head SocietyWolf s Head New Hall architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue designed circa 1924Formation1883 140 years ago 1883 TypeSecret societylocalHeadquartersYale UniversityLocationNew Haven Connecticut U S Region servedUnited StatesThe current delegation spends its year together answerable to an alumni association 2 3 4 Some past members have gained prominence in athletics business the fine and literary arts higher education journalism and politics Contents 1 History 2 Antecedents 3 Establishment 4 Early stature 5 Point of view 6 The Halls 6 1 Previous Tomb 6 2 Current Tomb 7 Membership 8 Notable members 9 Notes 10 ReferencesHistory EditFifteen rising seniors from the Yale Class of 1884 with help from members of the Yale Class of 1883 who were considered publicly possible taps for the older societies abetted the creation of The Third Society The society changed its name to Wolf s Head five years later 5 6 7 The effort was aided by more than 300 Yale College alumni 8 9 and a few Yale Law School faculty in part to counter the dominance of the Skull and Bones Society in undergraduate and university affairs 7 10 The founding defeated the last attempt by the administration or the student body to abolish secret or senior societies at Yale 11 The tradition continued of creating and sustaining a society if enough potential rising seniors thought they had been overlooked Bones was established in 1832 after a dispute over selections for Phi Beta Kappa awards Scroll and Key Society the second society at Yale was established in 1841 after a dispute over elections to Bones The Third Society s founding was motivated in part by sentiment among some young men that they deserved insider status A certain limited number were firmly convinced that there had been an appalling miscarriage of justice in their individual omission from the category of the elect some founders agreed 7 12 13 Antecedents EditBefore the founding in 1780 at Yale of the Connecticut Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Kappa the second chapter established after that society s founding in 1776 which still practices a secret handshake among members 14 Yale College students established and joined literary societies 15 By the 1830s the campus literary societies Linonia Brothers in Unity and Calliopean had lost stature Calliopean folded in 1853 and the others shut down after the American Civil War 16 Calliopean Linonia and Brothers in Unity existed respectively 1819 1853 1768 1878 and 1735 1868 17 From the mid 1840s until 1883 several societies were started but each failed to sustain the interest of liberal arts students at Yale College broadly known as the Academical Department 18 Star and Dart Sword and Crown Tea Kettle Spade and Grave and E T L disbanded 19 Phi Beta Kappa was inactive at Yale from 1871 to 1884 coinciding in part with a national reorganization of the society 20 In the 1820s Anti Masonic agitation sweeping across the United States prompted PBK to examine the role of secrecy in its proceedings Associated with PBK s national reorganization in 1881 secrecy disappeared as a signature among all chapters quelling rivalry with collegiate fraternities clubs and societies 21 Hence secrecy was soon shelved at the Yale chapter 22 PBK exists today without any secrecy as an academic honor society Beginning in the 1850s the Yale undergraduate student body grew more diverse The college was becoming an institution of national rather than regional importance Students who hailed from environs beyond New England or who were not Congregationalist or Presbyterian entered the college in large numbers 23 The faculty and administration were dominated by alumni of Bones numbering four out of five faculty members between 1865 and 1916 Bones alumni were university secretaries from 1869 to 1921 Bones alumni were university treasurers for forty three of the forty eight years between 1862 1910 24 25 Five of the first six Yale Corporation elected Alumni Fellows were members of Bones 26 Dissatisfaction grew In 1873 The Iconoclast a student paper published once October 13 1873 advocated for the abolition of the society system It opined Out of every class Skull and Bones takes its men They have obtained control of Yale Its business is performed by them Money paid to the college must pass into their hands and be subject to their will It is Yale College against Skull and Bones We ask all men as a question of right which should be allowed to live 27 28 The Yale Daily News first appeared on January 28 1878 A memoir of the first college daily s birth records its first year strategy to rag the societies 29 The Class of 1884 agreed to support another revolt against the society system with a vote of no confidence to coincide with its graduation It had been understood that the society system was beyond reform and might well be abolished A spirited defense of the society system appeared in the May 1884 issue of The New Englander written and published by members of Scroll and Key Several periodicals reported regularly on the situation 30 Wolf s Head original tomb in 1901 Yale CollegeEstablishment EditThe initial delegation including ten Class Day officers from the Class of 1884 and led by Edwin Albert Merritt met in secret during their senior year with the aid of members of the Class of 1883 who were eager to start a society provided the evil features of the old societies would be eliminated The graduating and rising seniors were unanimous on this point Included among the supporters from the Class of 1883 were members touted as sure selections to Bones or Keys by the publishers of the Horoscope an undergraduate publication that provided feature material on the most likely taps The pro society seniors won the Class Day vote 67 50 31 The new society was conceived on or about June 5 1883 Among undergraduates the fledgling group was known as the Fox and Grapes for the Aesopian fable of jealousy 32 The two older societies suffered by comparison with Wolf s Head 33 The New Haven Register reported in 1886 Wolf s Head is not as far out of the world in respect to its public doings as are Bones and Keys There is a sufficient veil of secrecy drawn around its mechanism however to class it with the secret societies and this gives it a stability and respectability in Yale College circles that it might not have otherwise 34 The society was managed similarly to finals clubs associated with the Sheffield Scientific School however it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies 7 Early stature EditThe Third Society sat at the apex of a social pyramid bricked by junior societies sophomore societies were abolished in 1875 freshman societies in 1880 35 campus organizations athletic teams clubs and fraternities 36 37 In 1888 the society changed its name to Wolf s Head Society consonant with the approval among undergraduates of the society s pin a stylized wolf s head on an inverted ankh an Egyptian hieroglyphic known as the Egyptian Cross or the key of life The earliest undergraduate members allowed fellow schoolmates to handle the pin a specific refutation of pin display by the older societies Eternal life is symbolized rather than death or erudition A Roman fasces had been considered as a design element for the pin 7 38 Point of view EditMany pioneering and subsequent members mocked as poppycock from the Dutch for soft excrement 39 the seemingly Masonic inspired rituals and atmosphere associated with Skull and Bones In their The Pirates of Penzance prank Wolf s Head members persuaded the thespian pirate king to display the numbers 322 part of the emblem of Skull and Bones below a skull and crossbones at a local theatre 40 In another example Yale President A Whitney Griswold s deprecated the rituals as bonesy bullshit and Dink Stover crap coloring undergraduate life 41 Wolf s Head did maintain many traditional practices such as the Thursday and Sunday meetings which were common among its peers Paul Moore Jr long time Senior Fellow and successor trustee 1964 1990 for the Yale Corporation and long tenured bishop in the Episcopal Church United States recalled the night before he first encountered combat in World War II I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by a friend from Harvard about what went on in Wolf s Head He could not believe I would hold back such irrelevant secrets the night before I faced possible death 42 43 The Halls EditPrevious Tomb Edit The Old Hall was erected within months of the founding The older Academical Department societies met originally for decades in rented quarters near campus Skull and Bones opened its tomb in 1856 more than two decades after its founding 44 Scroll and Key did likewise it opened its tomb in 1869 more than two decades after the society s founding Old Hall designed by McKim Mead and White completed in 1884 Purchased by University in 1924 McKim Mead and White firm of 1884 former or Old Hall at 77 Prospect Street across the street from the Grove Street Cemetery commissioned for the Phelps Trust Association Richardsonian Romanesque Purchased by the university in 1924 rented to Chi Psi fraternity 1924 29 Book and Bond defunct society 1934 35 and Vernon Hall now Myth and Sword 1944 54 Currently houses the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies 45 A building with narrow windows the Old Hall was noted as the most modern and handsomest of the society domiciles by The New York Times in 1903 The building was erected in 1884 soon after the founding members secured financing 7 Bertram Goodhue architect designed New Hall ca 1924 built posthumously Goodhue was a protege of James Renwick Jr architect of the first St Anthony Hall chapter house in New York City 46 The building has stone wall and wrought iron fencing and is central to the largest secret society compound on campus The compound commands the most prominent location on campus beyond Harkness Tower the very icon of Yale 47 and the Memorial Quadrangle Current Tomb Edit Goodhue s evocative Wolf s Head Society building shown behind its high stone enclosure The New Hall opened in the mid 1920s and sits fronted by York Street surrounded by the Yale Daily News Briton Hadden Memorial building and the Yale Drama School and theatre both gifts to Yale from Edward Harkness 46 It is near the former homes of the Fence Club or Psi Upsilon 224 York Street DKE 232 York Street and Zeta Psi 212 York Street Membership EditThe society has been reputed to tap the gregarious prep school type 48 49 Past members were associated intimately with the coeducation of Yale College 50 establishment of the Yale residential college system and the Harvard house system 51 founding of the Elizabethan Club 52 and founding of the Yale Political Union 53 This was Yale s last all male society it has tapped women since the spring of 1992 54 Edward John Phelps Envoy to the Court of St James s accepted the offer in 1885 to be namesake to the Wolf s Head alumni association 7 The Phelps Association as of January 2016 holds in trust nearly seven million dollars second among Yale societies or clubs 55 Yale societies contrast sharply with Harvard finals clubs on membership criteria Contributions to undergraduate life has been historically among the criteria for membership in Yale societies Finals clubs overlook that quality among prospective members 56 57 Notable members Edit Tom Steyer 1979 American businessman and liberal political activist David Josiah Brewer Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Rogers Morton 1937 US Representative 22nd Secretary of Commerce and 39th Secretary of the Interior Charles Ives 1898 American modernist composer Edward Harkness 1896 philanthropist and major benefactor to Yale Anson Goodyear 1899 philanthropist and first president of Museum of Modern Art Stephen Vincent Benet 1919 Pulitzer Prize winning American poet short story writer and novelist Malcolm Baldrige Jr former U S Secretary of Commerce 58 Leigh Bardugo 1997 Israeli American author 59 Charles L Bartlett Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Donald Beer 1957 Competition Rower and Olympic Champion 60 Stephen Vincent Benet 1919 Pulitzer Prize winning American poet short story writer and novelist 61 Clarence Winthrop Bowen 1883 American author of historical essays 62 David Josiah Brewer Justice of the US Supreme Court 63 James Smith Bush 1844 Episcopal priest William H T Bush 1950 Businessperson John Charlesworth 1929 American football player 64 Thomas Charlton 1956 competition rower and Olympic medalist 65 Sam Chauncey 1957 Yale administrator 66 John Proctor Clarke Justice of the New York Supreme Court 67 Alexander Smith Cochran 1896 manufacturer and philanthropist 68 Erastus Corning 2nd 1932 New York politician 69 Parker Corning 1895 businessman and US Representative 70 Mark Dayton 1978 retired Minnesota senator and governor Robert Fiske 1952 attorney and law partner 71 William Clay Ford 1949 businessman and heir 72 Richard Gilder 1954 philanthropist and businessman 73 Paul Goldberger 1972 architecture critic 74 A Conger Goodyear 1899 philanthropist and 1st President of Museum of Modern Art 75 A Whitney Griswold 1929 16th President of Yale 76 Edwin S Grosvenor 1973 President and Editor in Chief of American Heritage Ashbel Green Gulliver 1919 dean of Yale Law School 61 Charles Harkness 1883 investor and heir 77 Edward Harkness 1896 philanthropist and major benefactor to Yale 78 William L Harkness American businessman Robert Maynard Hutchins 1921 collegiate administrator and president of the University of Chicago 79 Charles Edward Ives 1898 American modernist composer 80 Dick Jauron 1973 American football player 81 William Woolsey Johnson American mathematician 82 Rashid Khalidi 1970 Palestinian American historian 74 Lewis Lehrman investment banker and politician 83 Christopher Lydon media personality and commentator 74 Douglas MacArthur II 1932 American diplomat 84 Wayne MacVeagh American politician and former United States Attorney General 85 William Matthews 1965 poet winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize Edwin Merritt 1884 New York Politician 86 Clark Millikan 1924 American academic 87 88 Roger Milliken 1937 American heir industrialist and businessman 89 Douglas Moore 1915 composer and author 90 Paul Moore American bishop 91 Paul Moore Sr 1908 American businessman 92 Jack Morrison 1967 American ice hockey Olympic athlete 93 Thruston Morton 1929 US Senator 94 Rogers C B Morton U S Representative Secretary of Interior and Secretary of Commerce Edward John Phelps Lawyer and diplomat 95 Philip W Pillsbury 1924 Chair of Pillsbury Company 87 96 Ducky Pond 1925 American football and baseball player 97 Geoffrey Robinson British politician and businessperson Benno C Schmidt Jr 20th President of Yale 98 Kurt Schmoke 1971 American lawyer and politician 99 Raymond Seitz 1963 American Ambassador to the United Kingdom Edmund Clarence Stedman American poet critic essayist banker and scientist 82 Tom Steyer 1979 American business man and liberal political activist 100 William Earl Dodge Stokes Businessman and urban developer 101 Sam Wagstaff American art curator and collector 102 Rusty Wailes 1958 American rower 103 Clarissa Ward 2002 Emmy award winning American journalist Arthur Williams Wright 1859 American physicist Douglas Wick 1976 Academy Award winning film producer Doug Wright 1985 Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright librettist and screenwriter 104 William Wrigley III 1954 president of the Wm Wrigley Jr Company 105 Notes Edit Caro Robert 1974 The Power Broker Robert Moses and the Fall of New York New York Knopf ISBN 978 0 394 48076 3 OCLC 834874 Dear Wolf s Head Blog Yale Daily News 02 May 2013 1 article New book ignites society debate Britton O Daly Yale Daily News 5 Oct 2017 The Choice is Yours Blog Yale Daily News 24 February 2017 Timeline of Selected Events in the History of Yale University Resources on Yale History Yale University Library March 19 2010 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Yale Alumni Publications Inc March 2001 Tercentennial Edition An Irrepressible Urge to Join Yale Alumni Magazine Retrieved 2011 08 01 a b c d e f g Andrews John History of the Founding of Wolf s Head Lancaster Press 1934 Phelps Trust Association archives Sterling Memorial Library Yale University Bulletin of Yale University New Haven 15 October 1932 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931 1932 pg 32 Henry Blodget B A 1875 and pg 44 John Proctor Clarke B A 1878 Obituary Record of Yale University 1924 1925 Bulletin of Yale University New Haven Twenty First Series August 1 1925 Number Twenty Two Abram Heaton Robertson B A 1872 pg 1316 Gardner Green B A 1873 pg 1319 John Williams Andrews 2008 04 01 History of the founding of Wolf s Head Open Library OL 6318007M Retrieved 2011 08 01 Richards David Alan Skulls and Keys Pegasus Books Ltd NY NY 2017 pp 284 327 The Solution of Wolf s Head 1883 1888 pp 284 327 ISBN 978 1 68177 517 3 Changes in Skull and Bones Famous Yale Society Doubles Size of its House Addition a Duplicate of Old Building The New York Times September 13 1903 p 22 Oren Dan Joining the Club A History of Jews and Yale Second Edition Yale University Press New Haven and London 2000 pp 332 333 ISBN 0 300 08468 4 Nadrina Ebrahimi Yale Daily News Phi Beta Kappa to induct 25 students 7 December 2016 Welcome Yale Phi Beta Kappa Yale edu Retrieved 2016 09 04 Secrets of the Tomb pp 36 38 Havemeyer Loomis Yale s Extracurricular amp Social Organizations 1780 1960 PDF Yale Library pp 5 8 Robbins Alexandra Secrets of the Tomb Skull and Bones the Ivy League and the Hidden Paths to Power Back Bay Books New York and Boston pp 61 62 ISBN 0 316 73561 2 Andrews p 75 Joining the Club p 22 Phi Beta Kappa History Clubs psu edu Retrieved 2016 09 04 Tombs and Taps An inside look at Yale s Fraternities Sororities and Societies Conspiracyarchive com Retrieved 2011 08 01 Stephenson Louise L Scholarly Means to Evangelical Ends The New Haven Scholars and the Transformation of Higher Learning in America The Johns Hopkins University Press 1986 p 64 ISBN 0 8018 2695 0 Secrets of the Tomb pp 48 50 127 Joining the Club p 26 Skulls and Keys p xix Andrews p 39 Karabel Jerome The Chosen The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard Yale and Princeton Houghton Mifflin Company Boston and New York 2005 p 56 ISBN 978 0 618 57458 2 Skulls and Keys p 259 Andrews pp 58 61 Andrews p 70 Skulls and Keys p 293 and p 292 Skulls and Keys p 320 Secrets of the Tomb p 63 Andrews p 46 Caro Robert 1974 The Power Broker Robert Moses and the Fall of New York New York Knopf p 38 ISBN 978 0 394 48076 3 OCLC 834874 Kabaservice Geoffrey The Guardians Kingman Brewster His Circle and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment Henry Holt and Company New York 2004 p 45 ISBN 0 8050 6762 0 Secrets of the Tomb p 68 Poppycock Definition of Poppycock by Merriam Webster Merriam webster com Retrieved 2016 09 04 Secrets of the Tomb pp 3 4 67 84 85 The Guardians p 155 Yale officers Founding Trustees and their successors www guides library yale edu Moore Paul Presences A Bishop s Life in the City Farrar Straus and Giroux New York 1997 pp 55 56 ISBN 0 374 23711 5 Yale Alumni Magazine May Jun 2015 The Origins of the tomb How Skull and Bones found a home by David Richards Institution for Social and Policy Studies Yale edu Retrieved 2016 09 04 a b Kelley Brooks Mather Yale A History Yale University Press New Haven and London p 374 ISBN 0 300 01636 0 Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs Harkness Carillon and Guild Information Yale edu Archived from the original on 2000 11 09 Retrieved 2016 09 04 Inside Eli or How to Get On at Yale Yale56 org 1955 56 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Secrets of the Tomb p 69 The Guardians p 64 Judith Ann Schiff Yale Alumni Publications Inc May June 2008 How the Colleges Were Born Yale Alumni Magazine Old Yale Archived from the original on 2008 05 22 Retrieved 2013 10 09 Real Shakespeare Treasures For Yale PDF The New York Times November 20 1911 The Guardians p 51 Yale Wolf s Head Admits Women Deseret News December 19 1991 Business Insider Jan 5 2016 5 01 ET by line Abby Jackson Eleven Final Clubs From Pig to Bat News the Harvard Crimson YAle s FINEST HOURS News the Harvard Crimson The Skulls and Bones Exposed Scribd com 2009 02 18 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Leigh Bardugo On Ninth House NPR org Retrieved 2019 12 04 Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1957 pg 47 a b Memorabilia Yalensis The Yale Literary Magazine 84 6 269 June 1919 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Skulls and Keys p 302 Skull and Keys pg 319 Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1929 pg 109 Yale Pot Pourri and Banner yearbook Class of 1956 pg 43 The Chosen p 653 Bulletin of Yale University New Haven 15 October 1932 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931 1932 Harvard Crimson Yale Society Elections published May 24 1895 Mayor Erastus Corning Albany Icon Webhome idirect com April 21 1954 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1895 pg 183 Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Yale Class of 1952 pg 39 Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Yale Class of 1949 Yale Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1954 pg 35 a b c Dem Bones Dem Bones and the Magic of Yale Harvard edu August 30 2004 Box folder number Mss A Conger Goodyear Papers 1683 1964 bulk 1885 1964 Research Library Buffalo History Museum Joining the Club p 182 Skull and Keys pg 484 Memorabilia Yalensis The Yale Literary Magazine 61 9 409 June 1896 Retrieved 2011 08 01 The Five Roles of Robert Maynard Hutchins DePaul University Libraries Volume 42 Issue 2 Winter 1992 DePaul Law Review Article 9 Jeffrey O Connell Thomas E O Connell footnote 62 Henderson Clayton W The Charles Ives Tunebook Second Edition Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis 2008 p 367 ISBN 978 0 253 35090 9 Jay October 10 2007 Fire Dick Jauron The Continuing Story of Buffalo Dick Firedickjauron blogspot com Retrieved 2011 08 01 dubious discuss a b Skull and Keys p 319 Joining the Club pp 175 409 Google Retrieved 2016 09 04 Skulls and Keys p 319 Andrews John The Founding of Wolf s Head Society Lancaster Press pg 70 a b Caltech obituary Clark Caltech edu accessed September 14 2016 Yale University Banner and Pou Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1924 pg 89 Six Yale Societies Elect 90 Members New York Times May 8 1936 Yale s Great Oak Sees Tap Day Again The New York Times May 21 1915 p 8 Moore Honor The Bishop s Daughter A Memoir First Edition W W Norton amp Company Inc New York 2008 p 30 ISBN 978 0 393 05984 7 My Harvard My Yale editor Diana DuBois chapter A Touch of Laughter author Rt Rev Paul Moore Random House New York 1982 ISBN 0 394 51920 5 Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1937 pg 67 Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1929 pg 109 Funeral of E J Phelps Ex President Dwight of Yale Pays a Feeling Tribute to the Dead Interment in Vermont New York Times March 11 1900 Retrieved 2011 08 01 Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1924 pg 89 The Bridgeport Telegraph Friday May 16 1924 pg 28 and Saturday May 17 1924 pg 16 Cedotal Andrew April 18 2006 Rattling Those Dry Bones Yale Daily News Archived from the original on 2011 08 01 Skulls and Keys p 657 Secret Society 2013 Who they are and how they got in yaleherald com April 21 2012 retrieved 2012 12 11 Skulls and Keys p 303 Morrisroe Patricia Mapplethorpe A Biography Random House New York 1995 p 115 ISBN 0 786 74975 X Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook Class of 1958 New Haven CT pg 61 gt FamousAlumni asp Yale University Banner and Pot Pourri Yearbook New Haven CT Class of 1954 pg 35References EditSkulls and Keys David Alan Richards Pegasus Books Ltd 2017 ISBN 978 1 68177 517 3 Insiders and Outsiders in American Historical Narrative and American History R Laurence Moore The American Historical Review Apr 1982 Secrets of the Tomb Skull and Bones the Ivy League and the Hidden Paths of Power Alexandra Robbins Little Brown Boston MA 2002 ISBN 0 3167 3561 2 The Power Elite C Wright Mills Oxford University Press 1956 ISBN 0 19 513354 4 ISBN 978 0 19 513354 7 Tycoons How Andrew Carnegie John D Rockefeller Jay Gould and J P Morgan invented the American supereconomy Charles R Morris H Holt and Co New York 2005 ISBN 0 8050 7599 2 On Bullshit Harry G Frankfurt Princeton University Press Princeton 2005 ISBN 1 400 82653 5 My Harvard My Yale Diana DuBois editor Random House NY NY 1982 ISBN 978 0394519203 Dear Wolf s Head by Karolina Ksiazek Yale Daily News weekend section datelined Thursday May 2 2013 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wolf 27s Head secret society amp oldid 1127246699, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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