Wolf's Head (secret society)

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The beginning of an esteemed Yale College (New Haven, Connecticut) tradition of students challenging the society system and then accepting its rewards was the decision of fifteen members of the Yale Class of 1884 to abet the incorporation of The Third Society, later known as Wolf's Head Society (W.H.S.).[1] Incorporated in 1883 as The Third Society by the Phelps Trust Association, W.H.S. is the third oldest senior or secret society at the liberal arts college (accounting for the societies -- Book and Snake, Berzelius and St. Elmo's -- associated with the Sheffield Scientific School, 1854 - 1956, a division of Yale for science and engineering students). Members of the Yale Class of 1884 joined forces with over 300 Yale alumni[2] to counter the dominance of Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key societies in undergraduate and university affairs. Dissatisfaction with the society system was associated with three related trends among the late-19th century student body: dissatisfaction with the current pedagogy, matriculants from environs beyond New England, and matriculants whose fathers represented new wealth in the Gilded Age.

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[edit] Background

The Yale administration was dominated throughout the 19th century by early alumni of Bones, founded in 1832, and Keys, founded in 1841.[3] Toward the end of the century the New Haven scholars were ascendant in the administration. The New Haven scholars used the pages of The New Englander,[4] the lecturn and pulpit to preach to college men and the current reading public that they were "members of a national elite based in communities across the nation. Their moral example would draw other men toward moral improvement and transform them into agents of the millennium".[5]

Wolf's Head 'New Hall', architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, designed circa 1924
Wolf's Head 'New Hall', architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, designed circa 1924

Almost in complete opposition to these gentlemen was the Young Yale movement. These alumni, reared or making careers in the nation's largest metropolitan areas, had a different point of view concerning the definition and aspiration of a man of culture. They were disinclined to think "that a man of culture could distinguish himself and gain leadership status in a community who respected him because of who he was, not what he has done. These young men tended to define success in terms of business achievement and acceptance by the new institutions of metropolitan life - social and athletic clubs". These alumni advocated for the secularization of the curriculum, so the education prepared best for professional careers now afforded by industrialization in the Gilded Age.[6]

The undergraduate student body had changed since the 1850s, an acme for the New Haven scholars. Beginning in the 1850s "increasing numbers of students whose families tended not to come from New England and not be Congregationalists or Presbyterians entered the college. Yale was ceasing to be an institution of regional importance where cohesion stemmed from deeply held and shared religious and social beliefs." [7]

New wealth created by industrialization overwhelmed the old upper classes of the older cities. "From the eighteen-seventies until the nineteen-twenties, the struggle of old family with new money occurred on a grandiose scale. Those families that were old because they had become wealthy prior to the [American] Civil War attempted to close up ranks against the post-Civil War rich." This included the first publication of metropolitan social registers and the popularization of Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor's 400.[8]

In 1873 The Iconoclast, a once-published student paper, advocated for the abolition of the society system. It opined: "Out of every class Skull and Bones takes it 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?"[9] Phi Beta Kappa, originally a secret student group akin to contemporary fraternities with meetings devoted to debate and literature, was inactive at Yale, 1871 - 1884. Anti-Masonic agitation in the 1820s prompted discussion of the secrecy shrouding PBK. Associated with PBK's reorganiztion in 1881, secrecy disappeared as a practice among all chapters, quelling rivalry with social fraternities.[10] From the mid-1840s until 1883, failure met attempts to incorporate and sustain new societies at Yale among the Academic Department or liberal arts students.[11]

[edit] History

The Class of 1884 agreed to support the revolt against the society system with a vote of no confidence to coincide with its commencement. It had been understood that the society system was beyond reform and might well be abolished. However, over 300 alumni and fifteen members of the senior class incorporated a society in 1883. Those undergraduates were the society's initial delegation, and had met as such during their senior year. An appropriate meeting hall had been erected by 1884. The Third Society was accepted immediately among Yale undergraduates and alumni, and managed its affairs similarly to the extant groups. Members were known as Grey Friars.[12]

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 the other two [Bones and Keys]. There is a sufficient veil of secrecy drawn around its mechanism, however, to class it with secret societies, and this gives it a stability and respectability in Yale College circles that it might not have otherwise."[13] The incorporation continued successfully the tradition of founding a society if enough potential members thought they had been overlooked by the extant groups. Bones was organized after a dispute over elections to Phi Beta Kappa; likewise, Keys was organized after a dispute over elections to Bones.[14] The Third Society sat at the apex of a social pyramid with freshmen, sophomore and junior societies as well as student-run organizations, clubs and fraternities as brick.[15]

The society changed its name to Wolf's Head Society in 1888 after undergraduates noted approvingly the design, by Tiffany & Co., 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". Life is symbolized rather than death or erudition. By contrast, members of Bones and Keys wore their pins face down on cravat or lapel.[16]

The tone set by the Grey Friars, as had been written about the music of Charles Ives, "had a wicked sense of humor and delibrately set out to deflate every kind of pomposity".[17] Grey Friars mocked as "poppycock" the seemingly Masonic-inspired rituals of Bones and Keys.[18] Before the turn of the previous century, for example, a theater troupe visited New Haven to perform The Pirates of Penzance. When members learned the pirate king wore a hat bearing a skull and crossbones, a visit was made to the actor to suggest he display the numbers 322 below the skull and crossbones. When the character appeared on stage with the altered hat, several students vacated the theatre to the howling delight of the remaining audience.[19] Stephen Benet mocked playfully the aspiration to join a society: "Do you want to be successful?/ Form a club!/ Are your chances quite distressful?/ Form a club!/ Never mind the common friendships/ That no politician has!/ Seek the really righteous rounders/ and the athletes of the class!/ And you'll get your heart's desiring-/ and the rest will get the raz!"[20]

However, the society maintained many traditions, including the code of secrecy. Paul Moore recounted the night before he first saw battle 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."[21]

[edit] Current

The exchange of personal histories highlights the undergraduate body's regimen. "Societies create an environment for a special form of communication among serious students about their lives and the world around them," related recently a member of the 1968 delegation to the Yale Herald.[22] In the same piece of journalism, a "graduated" member of the Hall mentioned that character is important in the selection process. "There has to be someone in your life who thought there was something special about you. It's not just who you're friends with."[23]

Meetings are held Thursday and Sunday nights. The next delegation is tapped after a review of each member of the current academic year's junior class.

Women have been tapped since 1992.

The membership roster includes Black undergraduates (since 1969); and likewise, undergraduates of Asian or Hispanic descent, or native-born in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.[24]

The society's endowment is comparable with its older rivals.[25] The alumni association, named in honor of Edward Phelps,[26] reunions throughout the year.

[edit] Notable architects of the Wolf's Head Halls

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

"The Hall" 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 Briton Hadden Memorial, the Yale Drama School and its theatre, and the former homes of the Fence Club (or Psi Upsilon), DKE and Zeta Psi. The "Old Hall" was noted by the New York Times as "the most modern and handsomest" of the society domiciles at the turn of the previous century.[27]

[edit] Notable members

[edit] Arts and Letters

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Business

[edit] Diplomacy

[edit] Education

[edit] Journalism

[edit] Law and politics

[edit] Religion

[edit] "It is said...."

  • "the well-rounded, prep school type"[28] has defined W.H.S. membership
  • "the Hall" is home to a swimming pool and accounts for the highest single-building water bill in New Haven

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Phelps Trust Association archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University
  2. ^ Phelps Association Membership Directory, 2006 (also the provenance for Notable members)
  3. ^ pp. 60, Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths to Power, Alexandra Robbins, Little, Brown, 2002
  4. ^ pp. 164-5, Scholarly Means to Evangelical Ends - The New Haven Scholars and the Transformation of Higher Learning in America, Louise L. Stephenson, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986
  5. ^ pp. 41 - 45, ibid
  6. ^ pp. 64 - 65, ibid
  7. ^ pp. 64, ibid
  8. ^ pp.49, The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills, Oxford University Press, 1956
  9. ^ Secret Societies: Inside the World's Most Notorius Organizations, John Reynolds, Arcade Publishing, 2006
  10. ^ Phi Beta Kappa - History
  11. ^ pp.61-62, Secrets of the Tomb
  12. ^ see 1
  13. ^ pp.63, Secrets of the Tomb
  14. ^ New York Times, September 13, 1903, "Changes in Skull and Bones, Famous Yale Society Doubles Size of its House - Addition a Duplicate of Old Building"
  15. ^ pp. 38, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York City, Robert Caro, Alfred A. Knopf,1974
  16. ^ see 1
  17. ^ Liner notes, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives Symphony No. 2, Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg, Stereo 429220-2GH
  18. ^ see 1
  19. ^ pp. 67, Secrets of the Tomb
  20. ^ Joining The Club: A History of Jews and Yale, Second Edition, Dan A. Oren, Yale University Press, 2000
  21. ^ pp. 55-56, Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City, Paul Moore, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997
  22. ^ The Yale Herald - Sep 13, 2002 - Book debunks myths behind secret societies
  23. ^ see above
  24. ^ see 2
  25. ^ pp.74, Secrets of the Tomb
  26. ^ see 1
  27. ^ see 14
  28. ^ from Women at Yale: Liberating A College Campus, Janet Lever and Pepper Schwartz, The Bobbs - Merrill Company, Inc., 1971: "[the well-rounded prep school type] is a leader. An Andover boy described his social education: 'Going to Andover, I really developed a social awareness and an ability to handle people in public....Another tradition at Andover was that you weren't a grind. You had to get along.'"

[edit] References

  • YALE A HISTORY, Brooks Mather Kelley, Yale University Press, 1974
  • School of the Prophets: Yale College, 1701 - 1740, Richard Warch, Yale University Press, 1973
  • The Founding of Yale: The Legend of the Forty Folios, George Wilson Pierson, Yale University Press, 1988
  • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan invented the American supereconomy, Charles Morris, H. Holt and Co., 2005
  • The Game: The Harvard - Yale Football Rivalry, 1875 - 1983, Thomas Bergin, Yale University Press, 1984
  • My Harvard, My Yale, edited by Diana Dubois, Random House, 1982
  • Four Years at Yale, Lyman Bagg, Henry Holt and Company, 1871
  • The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment, Geoffrey Kabaservice, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2004
  • Mayday at Yale: A Case Study in Student Radicalism, John Taft, Westview Press, 1975
  • Stover at Yale, Owen Johnson, The MacMillan Company, 1912 and 1968
  • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Scribners's Sons, 1925
  • "Insiders and Outsiders in American Historical Narrative and American History", R. Laurence Moore, The American Historical Review (Apr. 1982)

[edit] External links

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