Colorized Photograph of William Huntington Russell, Yale Class of 1833, co-founder of Skull & Bones

The Russell Trust Association is the

business name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

for the

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

-based

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

, incorporated in 1856. The Russell Trust was incorporated by

William Huntington Russell William Huntington Russell (12 August 180919 May 1885) was an American businessman, educator, and politician. Notably, he was a co-founder of the Yale University secret society Skull and Bones, along with Alphonso Taft. Early life Russell was ...

as its president, and

Daniel Coit Gilman Daniel Coit Gilman (; July 6, 1831 – October 13, 1908) was an American educator and academic. Gilman was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and subsequently served as the second president of the University ...

as its first treasurer. Gilman later went on to become president of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

before leaving to become the first president of the Carnegie Foundation. Gilman also served as one of the first board members of the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

. In 1943, by special act of the

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

state legislature, its trustees were granted an exemption from filing corporate reports with the Secretary of State, which is normally a requirement. From 1978 until his death in 1988, business of the Russell Trust Association was handled by its single trustee, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. partner John B. Madden. Madden started with Brown Brothers Harriman in 1946, under senior partner Prescott Bush. According to a 2016 filing with the IRS, the Russell Trust Association (filing as RTA Incorporated) has assets of $3,906,458, including the structure at 64 High St. in New Haven, Connecticut. According to the IRS filing, the Association engages in "educational programs — structured programs of intellectual inquiry, sensitivity training and personal development for students of Yale University focusing on topics of intellectual, political or cultural importance. Recent topics have included homeland security, corporate governance and US international relations." IRS form 990, filed in 2017 for the tax year 2016

/ref> The business and political network of the Skull and Bones was detailed by

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...

scholar

Antony C. Sutton Antony Cyril Sutton (February 14, 1925 – June 17, 2002) was a British-American writer, researcher, economist, and professor. Early life and education Antony C. Sutton was born in London on February 14, 1925 to Edward Ceril Sutton and Marjorie ...

in the exposé, '' America's Secret Establishment''. Social organizations connected to the Russell Trust network include Deer Island Club, which also operates as a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

References

External links

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Website
Companies based in New Haven County, Connecticut 1856 establishments in Connecticut Skull and Bones Society {{Yale