Wolf's Head (secret Society)
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Wolf's Head Society is a senior secret society at
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in
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,
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. The society is one of the "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with
Skull and Bones Skull and Bones (also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death) is an undergraduate senior Secret society#Colleges and universities, secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior-class ...
and
Scroll and Key The Scroll and Key Society is a Collegiate secret societies in North America, secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Collegiate secret societies in North America#Yale University, Ya ...
. Active undergraduate membership is elected annually with sixteen Yale University students, typically rising seniors. Honorary members are elected. The current delegation spends its year together answerable to an alumni association. 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.Andrews, John. ''History of the Founding of Wolf's Head'', Lancaster Press, 1934. Phelps Trust Association archives,
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, Yale University.
The effort was aided by more than 300
Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
alumni and a few
Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
faculty, in part to counter the dominance of the Skull and Bones Society in undergraduate and university affairs. The founding defeated the last attempt by the administration or the student body to abolish secret or senior societies at Yale. 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 The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
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. " 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.


Antecedents

Before the founding in 1780 at Yale of the ''Connecticut Alpha chapter'' of
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
, the second chapter established after that society's founding in 1776 (which still practices a secret handshake among members), Yale College students established and joined literary societies. By the 1830s, the campus literary societies Linonia,
Brothers in Unity Brothers in Unity (formally, the Society of Brothers in Unity) is an undergraduate literary and debating society at Yale University. Founded in 1768 as a literary and debating society that encompassed nearly half the student body at its 19th-centu ...
, and Calliopean had lost stature. Calliopean folded in 1853, and the others shut down after the
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. Calliopean, Linonia, and Brothers in Unity existed respectively: 1819–1853, 1768–1878, and 1735–1868. From the mid-1840s until 1883, several societies were started, but each failed to sustain the interest of
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students at Yale College, broadly known as the Academical Department. Star and Dart, Sword and Crown, Tea-Kettle, Spade and Grave, and E.T.L. disbanded.Andrews, p. 75. Phi Beta Kappa was inactive at Yale from 1871 to 1884, coinciding in part with a national reorganization of the society. 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 A fraternity (; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western conce ...
, clubs and societies. Hence, secrecy was soon shelved at the Yale chapter. PBK exists today, without any secrecy, as an
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
honor society In the United States, an honor society is an organization that recognizes individuals who rank above a set standard in various domains such as academics, leadership, and other personal achievements, not all of which are based on ranking systems. ...
. 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
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or who were not Congregationalist or
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entered the college in large numbers. 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. Five of the first six
Yale Corporation The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Assembly of corporation The Corporation comprises 19 members: * Three ex officio members: the Preside ...
elected Alumni Fellows were members of Bones. Dissatisfaction grew: In 1873, ''The Iconoclast'', a student paper published once, , 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?"Andrews, p. 39. The
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first appeared on . A memoir of the first college daily's birth records its first year strategy to "rag" the societies. The Class of 1884 unanimously agreed to support a new revolt against the society system by issuing a vote of no confidence to coincide with their graduation. There was a widespread understanding that the existing society system was irredeemable and likely to be abolished. A spirited defense of the society system appeared in the issue of ''The New Englander'', written and published by members of Scroll and Key. Several periodicals reported regularly on the situation.Andrews, pp. 58-61.


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. he graduating and rising seniorswere 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.Andrews, p. 70. 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. The two older societies suffered by comparison with Wolf's Head. '' 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 ones 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...." The society was managed similarly to finals clubs associated with the
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; however, it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies.


Early stature

The Third Society sat at the apex of a social
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bricked by junior societies (sophomore societies were abolished in 1875, freshman societies in 1880),Andrews, p. 46. campus organizations, athletic teams, clubs, and fraternities. 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 The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...
, an
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ian
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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 the pin displayed 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.


Point of view

Many pioneering and subsequent members mocked as "poppycock" (from the Dutch for "soft excrement") the seemingly Masonic-inspired rituals and atmosphere associated with Skull and Bones. The sentiment was widespread in the Yale community, particularly among undergraduates. In their ''
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'' 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 Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
. In another example, Yale President A. Whitney Griswold's deprecated the rituals as "bonesy bullshit" and " Dink Stover crap" coloring undergraduate life. 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 The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Assembly of corporation The Corporation comprises 19 members: * Three ex officio members: the Preside ...
and long-tenured bishop in the
Episcopal Church (United States) The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...
, recalled the night before he first encountered combat in
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: "I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by friend from Harvardabout 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."


Symbols

The society's badge consists of a wolf's head on top of a
ankh The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...
, in gold.


Tomb


Old Hall

The original tomb, or Old Hall, was erected within months of the founding. The older academic 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. Scroll and Key did likewise; it opened its tomb in 1869 more than two decades after the society's founding. The former domicile is located at 77 Prospect Street, across the street from the
Grove Street Cemetery Grove Street Cemetery or Grove Street Burial Ground is a cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, that is surrounded by the Yale University campus. It was organized in 1796 as the New Haven Burying Ground and incorporated in October 1797 to replace th ...
, was a Richardsonian Romanesque building commissioned for the Phelps Trust Association and designed by the architectural firm
McKim, Mead and White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York. The firm's founding partners, Cha ...
. It was completed in 1884. It was purchased by the university in 1924, rented to
Chi Psi Chi Psi () is a fraternities and sororities, fraternity consisting of active chapters at 34 American colleges and universities. Chi Psi was founded in 1841 at Union College in Schenectady, New York. It was the first Greek-letter organization to b ...
fraternity (1924–29), Book and Bond (defunct society) (1934–35), and Vernon Hall (now Myth and Sword) (1944–54). It currently houses the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies. A building with narrow
window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...
s, the domicile was noted as "the most modern and handsomest" of same purpose structures by ''
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'' in 1903. The building was erected in 1884 soon after the founding members secured financing.


New Hall

Bertram Goodhue, architect, designed the New Hall, c. 1924; it was built posthumously. Goodhue was a protege of
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, architect of the first
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chapter house in
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. The tomb has stone walls 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
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, the very icon of Yale, and the
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. The domicile opened in the mid-1920s and sits fronted by York Street surrounded by the ''
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''
Briton Hadden Briton Hadden (February 18, 1898 – February 27, 1929) was the co-founder of ''Time'' magazine with his Yale classmate Henry Luce. He was ''Time''s first editor and the inventor of its revolutionary writing style, known as Timestyle. Thoug ...
Memorial building, and the
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. The original School of Drama and Theatre as well as the Briton Hadden Memorial Building, were gifts to Yale from Edward Harkness.Kelley, Brooks Mather.''Yale: A History'', Yale University Press, New Haven and London. p. 374. .


Membership

The society has been reputed to tap the gregarious " prep school type". Past members were associated intimately with the: coeducation of Yale College, establishment of the Yale residential college system and the Harvard house system, founding of the Elizabethan Club, and founding of the Yale Political Union. This was Yale's last all-male society. Women have been tapped since the spring of 1992. Edward John Phelps,
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to the Court of St. James's, accepted the offer in 1885 to be namesake to the Wolf's Head alumni association. The Phelps Association, as of January 2016, holds in trust nearly seven million dollars, second among Yale societies or clubs. 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.


Notable members


References


Bibliography

*Andrews, John Williams. '' History of the founding of Wolf's Head''. Lancaster: Lancaster Press, 1934. via Open Library. *Kabaservice, Geoffrey. ''The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment''. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004. *Oren, Dan. ''Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale'', Second Edition.
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, New Haven and
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, 2000. . *Richards, David Alan. ''Skulls and Keys''. Pegasus Books Ltd., 2017. * Robbins, Alexandra. ''Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the
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, and the Hidden Paths of Power''. Boston:
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, 2002.


Further reading

* Morris, Charles R.,''Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy.'' New York: H. Holt and Co., 2005. *''My Harvard, My Yale''. Diana DuBois, editor. New York:
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, 1982. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf's Head (Secret Society) 1883 establishments in the United States Secret societies at Yale Student organizations established in 1883 Local fraternities and sororities Student societies in the United States