Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 as an American branch of a German student society known as Der Eulogianische Club. The name can be traced to the Latin word eulogia, meaning “blessing,” and has sometimes been associated with the Eucharist. Eulogia can also signify eloquence, and one version of the story holds that the group’s name derives from the fact that its members worshipped a Greek goddess named Eulogia, who was said to have ascended to heaven together with the eloquent Greek philosopher Demosthenes after his death in 322 BC.
It has been speculated that the number 322, which appears beneath the skull in the fraternity’s emblem, refers to the idea that the Order originated from—or identifies itself with—a Greek brotherhood dating back to the time of Demosthenes’ death in 322 BC.
The affairs of Skull & Bones were managed by the Russell Trust Association under the leadership of Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of Johns Hopkins University and also a co-founder of the Carnegie Institution for Science.¹
The founder of Skull & Bones was businessman, politician, and educational reformer William Huntington Russell. He came from a wealthy family whose company, Russell and Company, amassed a fortune during the nineteenth century through the opium trade in China.
Russell studied in Germany during 1831–1832 and reportedly became friends with the leader of Der Eulogianische Club, a society believed in turn to have been inspired by the revolutionary organization founded by the legendary German jurist Adam Weishaupt, known as the Orden der Perfektibilisten, established in 1776.
Weishaupt, whose group later became known as the Bavarian Illuminati and gained notoriety simply as the Illuminati, evolved from being a devout Christian into a revolutionary theorist who sought to abolish both religion and monarchy.
The society eventually fragmented after authorities received information about its activities and carried out a crackdown. Weishaupt fled hastily to Gotha, where he later died in 1830.
Since then, the Illuminati have become surrounded by so many myths and speculations that the society has become something of a proverbial hornet’s nest for anyone attempting to understand or analyze it.
Many people are convinced that the group still exists and exerts significant influence behind the scenes, while others regard it as a fanciful myth. Most serious historians who have studied the matter, however, agree that the group did in fact exist.
Opinions differ regarding its true purpose, legacy, and possible continuing influence, but one theory holds that it inspired the German society that, in turn, influenced William Huntington Russell to establish Skull and Bones.
Skull & Bones has also been known as ”Chapter 322,” a designation that is sometimes said to refer to the death of Demosthenes in 322 BC. Another theory suggests that ”32” represents the year 1832, when the organization was founded, while the final ”2” symbolizes that it was the second branch of its German predecessor.
Russell gathered the most promising students in his class at Yale University to form what became known as ”Bones,” and among themselves the members often referred to the organization simply as ”The Order.”
One of Russell’s closest associates was Alphonso Taft, who later served as Secretary of War, Attorney General, and U.S. Ambassador to Russia.
His son, William Howard Taft, not only became Chief Justice of the United States but also served as the nation’s 27th president.
Many Skull & Bones members later appeared in the ranks of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. The number of Yale graduates involved was so large that Yale’s traditional graduation song, The Whiffenpoof Song, reportedly became an unofficial drinking song within the OSS.
Later, so many Skull & Bones members were found within the CIA that people joked that meetings of the agency’s top officials resembled Yale class reunions.
Gaddis Smith, a history professor at Yale, argued that Yale had influenced the CIA more than any other university.
Over time, the organization’s active membership evolved into a core group of roughly twenty to thirty families. As in the upper levels of the financial world, it was not uncommon for members to marry into one another’s families.
Initiated members of Skull & Bones are referred to as ”Knights” during their first year and ”Patriarchs” thereafter.
Historians not infrequently tend to dismiss this type of secret society as harmless gentlemen’s clubs, but it is an indisputable fact that a disproportionately large number of Skull and Bones members have gone on to attain powerful positions in banking, business, and politics.
Names such as the Taft family, Bundy family, Harriman family, Whitney family, Rockefeller family, Goodyear family, Henry L. Stimson, Kellogg family, and Vanderbilt family are often cited as examples. Former U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as former presidential candidate and Secretary of State John Kerry, are also members.²
However one views the matter, the significance of Skull & Bones can hardly be overstated, even if its name and traditions may tempt people not to take it seriously.
Each year, no more than fifteen members are selected for admission into Skull & Bones, and, like its alleged German predecessors, the society uses a skull and crossed bones as its symbol.
Members reportedly take part in bizarre initiation rituals, adopt code names, swear a strict oath of loyalty to the group, and refer to one another as “brothers under the skin.”³ According to the author, loyalty to the organization is said to be immense and to supersede both family and nation.
The Order’s influence is also said to extend into the media world.
The influential American magazine Time was founded by Skull & Bones member Henry Luce, and two other members of the society reportedly founded the law firm that represented The New York Times Company.
The group has also been alleged to have exercised control over publishing houses such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux.⁴
As early as the late nineteenth century, members of the society helped establish organizations such as the American Historical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Economic Association.
Professor Antony C. Sutton argued in his book America’s Secret Establishment that Skull & Bones exerted considerable influence over twentieth-century American politics through members who occupied important positions in society.
Among other claims, Sutton argued that the society influenced education⁵ and played a role in financing both the Russian Revolution and Nazi Party.⁶
According to the author, Sutton’s conclusions also coincided with research conducted by journalist Ron Rosenbaum.
In the book The Secret Parts of Fortune, subtitled Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasm, Ron Rosenbaum examined and, according to the author, exposed the power and influence of Skull and Bones.
When Rosenbaum interviewed a source with insider knowledge of Skull & Bones, he was warned that he could get into trouble. The source asked which bank Rosenbaum used and informed him that Skull & Bones had three men on that bank’s board of directors. Rosenbaum was told that he would never receive another loan from the bank if he continued investigating the organization.
“They don’t like people snooping around. Skull & Bones’ power is incredible. They have their hands in every part of the country.”⁷
According to the author, Skull & Bones has focused on influencing or controlling finance, politics, media, education, history, philanthropy, medicine, and other sectors.
Within the oil industry, the organization has allegedly counted members from families such as the Rockefeller family, Payne family, and Pratt family of Standard Oil.
According to Professor Antony C. Sutton, a wide range of manufacturing companies have also had members connected to the group.
Furthermore, the Federal Reserve System has, perhaps unsurprisingly according to the author, had several members associated with Skull & Bones,⁸ a claim also discussed by author Alexandra Robbins, who has written extensively about the Order.
According to Sutton, the Order’s activities are aimed at transforming society and creating a ”new world order.”
He argued that this envisioned order would involve severely limited individual freedom, the absence of constitutional protections, and a society in which everyone is subject to state surveillance.
According to this interpretation, efforts to achieve such a system have been underway for a long time, at times in cooperation with other groups pursuing similar goals and united by the belief that their members are uniquely qualified to guide society’s development.
Michael Delavante, Behind the Scenes of a Secret Society
Sources:
- Michael Benson, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University, John Hopkins University Press, 2022, (page 18, 19)
- The 15 Most Powerful Members Of ’Skull And Bones’, Business insider, Feb 20, 2011
- ris Millegan Fleshing Out Skull & Bones; Investigations Into America’s Most Powerful Secret Society, Trine Day 2003, (page 323)
- Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power”, Today Show, 4 Sept, 2003
- Antony Sutton, Americas Secret Establishment:An introduktion to the Skull & Bones,”Trine Day, 2002, (page 62-110)
- Antony Sutton, Americas Secret Establishment:An introduktion to the Skull & Bones,”Trine Day, 2002, (page 117-75)
- The Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale University: New York Observer investigation – Tony Gosling 18 Aug 02
- Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power”, Today Show, 4 Sept, 2003
