Wolf's Head (secret society)
Encyclopedia
Wolf's Head Society is an undergraduate senior
or secret society
at Yale University
, New Haven, CT, USA. Membership is recomposed annually of fifteen or sixteen Yale University students, typically juniors from the college. A delegation spends its year together answerable to the Phelps Association
, composed of past members.
The society was founded when fifteen members of the Yale Class of 1884, with help from a few members of the Yale Class of 1883 who were considered possible taps for the existing societies, chose to abet the creation of The Third Society, later known as Wolf's Head Society. The society tapped eventually over 300 Yale College
alumni and some prominent Yale Law School
faculty soon after the incorporation. The fellowship was joined in part to counter the dominance of Skull and Bones Society in undergraduate and university affairs.
The incorporation defeated the last attempt to abolish undergraduate secret societies at Yale, and continued the tradition of founding a society if enough potential members thought they had been overlooked by the extant groups. Bones was organized in 1832 after a dispute over selections for Phi Beta Kappa awards. Scroll and Key Society, the second society at Yale, was organized in 1841 after a dispute over elections to Bones. The Third Society's founding was likewise motivated by the sentiment among some outsiders 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," the society founders among the Yale Classes of 1883 and 1884, and some earlier classes, agreed.
students. Groups named Star and Dart, Sword and Crown, Tea-Kettle, Spade and Grave, and E.T.L. failed to join the ranks of the sustaining societies.
By the 1830s the campus literary societies, Linonia, Brothers in Unity
, and Calliope
, were losing prominence. Calliope folded in 1853 and the others shut down after the American Civil War
. Calliope, Linonia, and Brothers in Unity existed respectively: 1819-1853, 1768–1878, and 1735-1868.
Phi Beta Kappa was inactive 1871 to 1884 at Yale. In the 1820s Anti-Masonic agitation across the United States of America prompted PBK to examine the role of secrecy in its proceedings. Secrecy was soon shelved at the Yale chapter. Associated with PBK's national reorganization in 1881, secrecy disappeared as a signature among all chapters, quelling rivalry with collegiate fraternities
, clubs and societies. 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 ceasing to be an institution of regional importance where cohesion stemmed from deeply held and shared social beliefs. Students who hailed from environs beyond New England
or who weren't Congregationalist or Presbyterian entered the college in large number.
The faculty was populated solidly with alumni of Bones, numbering 4 out of 5 faculty members between 1865 and 1916, and the administration was likewise dominated by members of that society. In 1873 The Iconoclast, a student paper published once, 13 October, 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?" 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 defense of the society system appeared in the May 1884 issue of The New Englander
. However, The Third Society was incorporated in 1883.
An appropriate meeting hall had been erected by 1884. Members were known as Grey Friars.
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...."
Tapping Yale alumni and some prominent faculty help broadened the reach of the society's influence and further legitimized the effort in the local and greater Yale communities. The society was briefly managed similarly to the finals clubs associated with the Sheffield Scientific School
, however it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies.
bricked by junior societies (sophomore societies were abolished in 1875, freshmen societies in 1880), campus organizations, athletic teams, clubs, and fraternities. "By 1884, half the faculty and the Yale Corporation
were members of a Yale secret society. In control, they were careful to quash efforts at restricting the societies." Other societies have been incorporated to keep pace with Yale's growing enrollment.
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 Egypt
ian hieroglyphic known as the Egyptian Cross or "the key of life". Eternal life is symbolized, rather than death or erudition. A Roman fasces
had been considered as a design element for the pin, but wasn't adopted.
prank, with the thespian pirate king persuaded to display the numbers 322 (part of the emblem of Skull and Bones) below a skull and crossbones
at a local theatre
, along with Whit Griswold's deprecations of poppycock -- "Bonesy bullshit" and "Dink Stover
crap" -- coloring undergraduate life, and the practice of newly- and recently-enfranchised wolves howling in late-April
sustain the society's early impetus to deflate pomposity among its peer group. W.H.S. maintained many traditions common among its peers, however. Paul Moore recalled the night before he first encountered combat in World War II
: "I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by...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." The society sent Scroll and Key 100 thornless American Beauty roses
for its centennial celebration, in 1942, with an appropriate poem authored by Stephen Vincent Benet
.
A building with window
s, though each is rather narrow, with an entrance off a main New Haven street, the "Old Hall" was noted as "the most modern and handsomest" of the society domiciles by The New York Times
, September 13, 1903. The building was erected in 1884 soon after the founding members secured financing.
The current society compound commands the most prominent location on campus beyond Harkness Tower
and the Memorial Quadrangle
, gifts from Anna M. Harkness
, the mother of Charles Harkness
and Edward Harkness. "The Hall" sits fronted by York Street and surrounded by the Yale Daily News
Briton Hadden
Memorial building, the Yale Drama School and theatre (both gifts from E. Harkness), and the former homes of the Fence Club (or Psi Upsilon
, 224 York Street), DKE
(232 York Street) and Zeta Psi
(212 York Street).
Years ago, an olympic-sized swimming pool was said to be among the accommodations in Goodhue's building.
, the establishment of the Yale residential college system and the Harvard house system
, the founding of the Elizabethan Club
, and the founding of the Yale Political Union.
Envoy
to the Court of St. James's
Edward Phelps accepted the offer to be namesake to the alumni association at his farewell dinner at Delmonico's.
The society has tapped women since the spring of 1992. W.H.S. was the last all-male undergraduate society.
, Stephen Vincent Benet
, William H.T. Bush
, Sam Chauncey
, Alexander Smith Cochran
, Erastus Corning 2nd
, William Clay Ford, Sr.
, Paul Goldberger
, A. Whitney Griswold, Ashbel Green Gulliver
, Edward Harkness
, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Charles Edward Ives, Dick Jauron
, Rasheed Khalidi
, Lewis Lehrman
, Christopher Lydon
, Edwin Merritt, Clark Millikan, Douglas Moore, Paul Moore, Paul Moore, Sr.
, Edward John Phelps
, Philip W. Pillsbury
, Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
, Sam Wagstaff
.
Senior (education)
Senior is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the 4th year of study .-High school:...
or secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, New Haven, CT, USA. Membership is recomposed annually of fifteen or sixteen Yale University students, typically juniors from the college. A delegation spends its year together answerable to the Phelps Association
Alumni association
An alumni association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students. In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools , fraternities, and sororities often form groups with alumni from the same organisation...
, composed of past members.
The society was founded when fifteen members of the Yale Class of 1884, with help from a few members of the Yale Class of 1883 who were considered possible taps for the existing societies, chose to abet the creation of The Third Society, later known as Wolf's Head Society. The society tapped eventually over 300 Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
alumni and some prominent Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
faculty soon after the incorporation. The fellowship was joined in part to counter the dominance of Skull and Bones Society in undergraduate and university affairs.
The incorporation defeated the last attempt to abolish undergraduate secret societies at Yale, and continued the tradition of founding a society if enough potential members thought they had been overlooked by the extant groups. Bones was organized in 1832 after a dispute over selections for Phi Beta Kappa awards. Scroll and Key Society, the second society at Yale, was organized in 1841 after a dispute over elections to Bones. The Third Society's founding was likewise motivated by the sentiment among some outsiders 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," the society founders among the Yale Classes of 1883 and 1884, and some earlier classes, agreed.
Antecedents
From the mid-1840s until 1883, five societies were incorporated but each failed to sustain the interest of the Academic Department or liberal artsLiberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
students. Groups named Star and Dart, Sword and Crown, Tea-Kettle, Spade and Grave, and E.T.L. failed to join the ranks of the sustaining societies.
Brothers in Unity
Brothers in Unity was an 18th century debating society at Yale University. At the time of the formation of Yale's central library, two debating societies, Linonia and Brothers in Unity, donated their respective libraries to the university...
, and Calliope
Calliope
In Greek mythology, Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for the Odyssey and the Iliad....
, were losing prominence. Calliope folded in 1853 and the others shut down after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Calliope, Linonia, and Brothers in Unity existed respectively: 1819-1853, 1768–1878, and 1735-1868.
Phi Beta Kappa was inactive 1871 to 1884 at Yale. In the 1820s Anti-Masonic agitation across the United States of America prompted PBK to examine the role of secrecy in its proceedings. Secrecy was soon shelved at the Yale chapter. Associated with PBK's national reorganization in 1881, secrecy disappeared as a signature among all chapters, quelling rivalry with collegiate fraternities
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
, clubs and societies. PBK exists today, without any secrecy, as an academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
honor society
Honor society
In the United States, an honor society is a rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers. Numerous societies recognize various fields and circumstances. The Order of the Arrow, for example, is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America...
.
Beginning in the 1850s, the Yale undergraduate student body grew more diverse. The college was ceasing to be an institution of regional importance where cohesion stemmed from deeply held and shared social beliefs. Students who hailed from environs beyond New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
or who weren't Congregationalist or Presbyterian entered the college in large number.
The faculty was populated solidly with alumni of Bones, numbering 4 out of 5 faculty members between 1865 and 1916, and the administration was likewise dominated by members of that society. In 1873 The Iconoclast, a student paper published once, 13 October, 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?" The Class of 1884 agreed to support another revolt against the society system with a vote of no confidence to coincide with its graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
. It had been understood that the society system was beyond reform and might well be abolished. A defense of the society system appeared in the May 1884 issue of The New Englander
The Yale Review
The Yale Review is the self-proclaimed oldest literary quarterly in the United States. It is published by Yale University.It was founded originally in 1819 as The Christian Spectator. At its origin it was published to support Evangelicalism, but over time began to publish more on history and...
. However, The Third Society was incorporated in 1883.
Establishment
The initial delegation, including ten Class Day officers and led by Edwin Albert Merritt, all members of the Class of 1884, had met in secret during their senior year, with the aid of members of Class of 1883 who were "eager to start a society provided the evil features of the old societies would be eliminated. [The graduating seniors and rising juniors] were unanimous on this point." Included among the supporters from the Class of 1883 were seniors who though overlooked by the other societies had been touted as sure or near-sure selections 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.An appropriate meeting hall had been erected by 1884. Members were known as Grey Friars.
The New Haven Register
The New Haven Register
The New Haven Register is a daily newspaper published in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned by Journal Register Company of Yardley, Pennsylvania. The Register's main office is located at 40 Sargent Drive in New Haven....
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...."
Tapping Yale alumni and some prominent faculty help broadened the reach of the society's influence and further legitimized the effort in the local and greater Yale communities. The society was briefly managed similarly to the finals clubs associated with the Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, the railroad executive. The school was...
, however it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies.
Early stature
W.H.S. sat at the apex of a social pyramidPyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
bricked by junior societies (sophomore societies were abolished in 1875, freshmen societies in 1880), campus organizations, athletic teams, clubs, and fraternities. "By 1884, half the faculty and the Yale Corporation
Yale Corporation
The Yale Corporation, sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.The Corporation comprises 19 members:...
were members of a Yale secret society. In control, they were careful to quash efforts at restricting the societies." Other societies have been incorporated to keep pace with Yale's growing enrollment.
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
Ankh
The ankh , also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ-n-ḫ...
, an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian hieroglyphic known as the Egyptian Cross or "the key of life". Eternal life is symbolized, rather than death or erudition. A Roman fasces
Fasces
Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity"...
had been considered as a design element for the pin, but wasn't adopted.
Point of view
The Grey Friars mocked as "poppycock" the seemingly Masonic-inspired rituals of Skull and Bones. Early undergraduate members went as far as allowing fellow Yale undergraduates to handle the society's pin. The Pirates of PenzanceThe Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
prank, with the thespian pirate king persuaded to display the numbers 322 (part of the emblem of Skull and Bones) below a skull and crossbones
Skull and crossbones
A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two long bones crossed together under the skull. It is generally used as a warning of danger, usually in regard to poisonous substances, such as deadly chemicals.-History of the symbol:...
at a local theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, along with Whit Griswold's deprecations of poppycock -- "Bonesy bullshit" and "Dink Stover
Stover at Yale
Stover at Yale, by Owen Johnson is a novel describing undergraduate life at Yale at the turn of the 20th century. The book was described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the "textbook of his generation"...
crap" -- coloring undergraduate life, and the practice of newly- and recently-enfranchised wolves howling in late-April
sustain the society's early impetus to deflate pomposity among its peer group. W.H.S. maintained many traditions common among its peers, however. Paul Moore recalled the night before he first encountered combat in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
: "I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by...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." The society sent Scroll and Key 100 thornless American Beauty roses
Rosa 'American Beauty'
American Beauty is a hybrid perpetual rose, bred in France in 1875, and originally named Madame Ferdinand Jamin. The cup-shaped flowers, which are deep pink and strongly scented, appear in flushes over a long period. The height of the shrub ranges between 90 and 200 cm.It was introduced in...
for its centennial celebration, in 1942, with an appropriate poem authored by Stephen Vincent Benet
Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...
.
The Wolf's Head Halls
- Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. designed ca. 1924 and completed posthumously, York Street, gift from Edward HarknessEdward HarknessEdward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four sons to Stephen V. Harkness, a harness-maker who invested in the forerunner of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller's oil company. Harkness inherited a fortune from his father...
. The "New Hall", with its stone wall and wrought iron fencing, is central to the largest secret society compound on campus. Coincidentally, Goodhue was a protege of James Renwick Jr., architect of the first St. Anthony HallSt. Anthony HallSt. Anthony Hall, also known as Saint Anthony Hall and The Order of St. Anthony, is a national college literary society also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi at colleges in the United States of America. St...
chapter house in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. - 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 RomanesqueRichardsonian RomanesqueRichardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
. Purchased by the University in 1924, rented to Chi PsiChi PsiChi Psi Fraternity is a fraternity and secret society consisting of 29 active chapters at American colleges and universities. It was founded on Thursday May 20, 1841, by 10 students at Union College with the idea of emphasizing the fraternal and social principles of a brotherhood...
Fraternity (1924–29), Book and Bond (defunct society) (1934–35), and Vernon Hall (defunct club) (1944–54). Currently houses the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies.
A building with window
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
s, though each is rather narrow, with an entrance off a main New Haven street, the "Old Hall" was noted as "the most modern and handsomest" of the society domiciles by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, September 13, 1903. The building was erected in 1884 soon after the founding members secured financing.
The current society compound commands the most prominent location on campus beyond Harkness Tower
Harkness Tower
Harkness Tower is a prominent Collegiate Gothic structure at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.The tower was constructed between 1917 and 1921 as part of the Memorial Quadrangle donated to Yale by Anna M. Harkness in honor of her recently deceased son, Charles William...
and the Memorial Quadrangle
Memorial Quadrangle
The Memorial Quadrangle at Yale University, USA, was donated by Anna M. Harkness with Harkness Tower named in memory of her son, Charles Harkness, Yale Class of 1883. Commissioned from James Gamble Rogers to supply much-needed student housing, the Quadrangle now consists of Saybrook College and...
, gifts from Anna M. Harkness
Anna M. Harkness
Anna M. Richardson was an American philanthropist.She married Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness, a harnessmaker of Cleveland, in 1851. They were parents of Charles William Harkness and Edward Stephen Harkness. Harkness senior invested with John D. Rockefeller and became the second-largest shareholder...
, the mother of Charles Harkness
Charles W. Harkness
Charles William Harkness was the son of Stephen V. Harkness, an original investor in the company that became Standard Oil, and his second wife, the former Anna M. Richardson....
and Edward Harkness. "The Hall" sits fronted by York Street and surrounded by the Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
Briton Hadden
Briton Hadden
Briton Hadden 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...
Memorial building, the Yale Drama School and theatre (both gifts from E. Harkness), and the former homes of the Fence Club (or Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America. For most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only...
, 224 York Street), DKE
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...
(232 York Street) and Zeta Psi
Zeta Psi
The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America was founded June 1, 1847 as a social college fraternity. The organization now comprises about fifty active chapters and twenty-five inactive chapters, encompassing roughly fifty thousand brothers, and is a founding member of the North-American...
(212 York Street).
Years ago, an olympic-sized swimming pool was said to be among the accommodations in Goodhue's building.
Membership
W.H.S. has been reputed to tap the gregarious "prep school type". Past members were associated intimately with the coeducation of Yale CollegeSam Chauncey
Henry "Sam" Chauncey, Jr. was a longtime administrator at Yale University. He has been credited in part with management of the volatile atmosphere on campus and in New Haven, Connecticut associated with the New Haven Black Panther trials....
, the establishment of the Yale residential college system and the Harvard house system
Edward Harkness
Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four sons to Stephen V. Harkness, a harness-maker who invested in the forerunner of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller's oil company. Harkness inherited a fortune from his father...
, the founding of the Elizabethan Club
Alexander Smith Cochran
Alexander Smith Cochran was a wealthy manufacturer, sportsman and philathropist from Yonkers, New York.-Biography:He was the son of Willam F. Cochran and grandson of Alexander Smith, founder of the Alexander Smith Carpet Company....
, and the founding of the Yale Political Union.
Envoy
Envoy
Envoy may refer to:*an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary*a Special Envoy*a diplomat in general*Envoy , the British Vauxhall cars for Canadian market in 1960-'70*Envoy , a document reader and document file format...
to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
Edward Phelps accepted the offer to be namesake to the alumni association at his farewell dinner at Delmonico's.
The society has tapped women since the spring of 1992. W.H.S. was the last all-male undergraduate society.
Some notable members
Malcolm Baldrige, Jr.Malcolm Baldrige, Jr.
Howard Malcolm "Mac" Baldrige, Jr. was the 26th United States Secretary of Commerce. He was the son of H. Malcolm Baldrige, a Congressman from Nebraska, and the brother of Letitia Baldrige....
, Stephen Vincent Benet
Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...
, William H.T. Bush
William H.T. Bush
William Henry Trotter "Bucky" Bush is the youngest son of Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush, the younger brother of former President George H.W. Bush, and the uncle of former President George W...
, Sam Chauncey
Sam Chauncey
Henry "Sam" Chauncey, Jr. was a longtime administrator at Yale University. He has been credited in part with management of the volatile atmosphere on campus and in New Haven, Connecticut associated with the New Haven Black Panther trials....
, Alexander Smith Cochran
Alexander Smith Cochran
Alexander Smith Cochran was a wealthy manufacturer, sportsman and philathropist from Yonkers, New York.-Biography:He was the son of Willam F. Cochran and grandson of Alexander Smith, founder of the Alexander Smith Carpet Company....
, Erastus Corning 2nd
Erastus Corning 2nd
Erastus Corning 2nd was an American politician. He was Mayor of Albany, New York for more than 40 years, from 1942 to 1983, when Albany County was controlled by one of the last two classic urban political machines in the United States. Albany's longest serving mayor, the Democrat died in office in...
, William Clay Ford, Sr.
William Clay Ford, Sr.
William Clay Ford, Sr. is the youngest of the four children of Edsel Ford and the youngest grandchild of Henry Ford.-Biography:...
, Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger is the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine's celebrated "Sky Line" column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City...
, A. Whitney Griswold, Ashbel Green Gulliver
Ashbel Green Gulliver
Ashbel Green Gulliver was the Dean of Yale Law School from 1940 to 1946. His nickname was "Peyl"—from ashpail.- Early life :...
, Edward Harkness
Edward Harkness
Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four sons to Stephen V. Harkness, a harness-maker who invested in the forerunner of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller's oil company. Harkness inherited a fortune from his father...
, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Charles Edward Ives, Dick Jauron
Dick Jauron
Richard Manuel Jauron is the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He was the head coach for the Buffalo Bills from 2006 until November 2009. Jauron has previously held head coaching positions with the Chicago Bears and, on an interim basis, with the...
, Rasheed Khalidi
Rashid Khalidi
Rashid Ismail Khalidi , born 1948, a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East, is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.-Family, education and...
, Lewis Lehrman
Lewis Lehrman
For the Texas judge, see Debra Lehrmann.Lewis E. "Lew" Lehrman is an investment banker who actively supports the ongoing study of American history from a conservative perspective. He was presented the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2005 for his scholarly contributions...
, Christopher Lydon
Christopher Lydon
Christopher Lydon is an American media personality and author. He is best known for being the original host of The Connection, produced by WBUR and syndicated to other NPR stations.-Background:...
, Edwin Merritt, Clark Millikan, Douglas Moore, Paul Moore, Paul Moore, Sr.
Paul Moore, Sr.
-Biography:He was a son of William Henry "Judge" Moore and the father of the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore. He was a member of the Yale Class of 1908. He earned a law degree, 1911, from New York University....
, Edward John Phelps
Edward John Phelps
Edward John Phelps was a lawyer and diplomat from Vermont. Born in Middlebury, he graduated from Middlebury College in 1840, studied law at Yale University, and began practicing in 1843.-Schooling:...
, Philip W. Pillsbury
Philip W. Pillsbury
Philip Winston Pillsbury was chairman emeritus of the Pillsbury Co. He was a member of the Yale College Class of 1924.Pillsbury was a grandson of Charles Pillsbury, co-founder of the flour-milling company which has grown to be among the world's largest diversified food companies. His father,...
, Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
Benno Charles Schmidt, Jr. is the Chairman of Avenues: The World School, a worldwide system of for profit, private K-12 schools. He is a former president of Yale University, where he served from 1986 to 1992 as the university's sixteenth president...
, Sam Wagstaff
Sam Wagstaff
Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith...
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Other references
- Insiders and Outsiders in American Historical Narrative and American History, R. Laurence Moore, The American Historical Review (Apr. 1982).
- The Power EliteThe Power EliteThe Power Elite is a book written by the sociologist, C. Wright Mills, in 1956. In it Mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of...
, C. Wright MillsC. Wright MillsCharles Wright Mills was an American sociologist. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship...
, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1956. ISBN 0-19-513354-4, ISBN 978-0-19-513354-7 - Tycoons: How Andrew CarnegieAndrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, John D. RockefellerJohn D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
, Jay GouldJay GouldJason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
, and J.P. Morgan invented the American supereconomyEconomy of the United StatesThe economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be nearly $14.5 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation...
, Charles R. MorrisCharles R MorrisCharles R. Morris is a lawyer, former banker, and author. He has written twelve books, and is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly.-Awards:...
, H. Holt and Co., New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8050-7599-2 - On BullshitOn BullshitOn Bullshit is an essay by philosopher Harry Frankfurt. Originally published in the journal Raritan in 1986, the essay was republished as a separate volume in 2005 and became a nonfiction bestseller, spending twenty-seven weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.In the essay, Frankfurt defines...
, Harry G. Frankfurt, Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, 2005. ISBN 2004058963