History

The society was founded in 1832 by Phi Beta Kappa pledges William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft. "An Irrepressible Urge to Join," Yale Alumni Magazine, March 2001.^* 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.

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, Boodle 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.

Bonesmen

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. Bonesmen range from U.S. Presidents such as George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and William Howard Taft along with Supreme Court Justices, business leaders and U.S. Senators such as John F. Kerry who ran for President in 2004.

Property owned

The Skull and Bones "Tomb"

According to "dissident" Bones members interviewed by Alexandra Robbins for her book Secrets of The Tomb 5, members dine off a set of Hitler's silverware while in the tomb, consuming expensive gourmet meals with each other over the span of the year. 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.

The S&B tomb is located on Yale's campus at 64 High Street (). 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 2000 film The Skulls.
• A letter, sent by member Winter Mead to member F. Trubee Davison in 1918, said Geronimo's skull and other remains were taken from the leader's burial site and deposited at the Skull and Bones headquarters.^*
• The fictional character Montgomery Burns on The Simpsons is a Bonesman from the class of 1914.

See also

• Porcellian Club
• Ivy Club

Notes