The Order of the Skull and Bones - a History

The Order of the Skull and Bones is a secret society founded December 1832, when according to one account William Russell, a Yale senior, unhappy with changes in the Phi Beta Kappa organization decided to form along with some other fellow students the Eulogian Club, an organization derived from a German student organization in obedience to the goddess Eulogia, whose name stands for eloquence.

Fact is that The Order of the Skull and Bones is one of the oldest student secret societies in the U.S.A. and has its residence on the High Street in the middle of the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut. The main building has almost no windows and big iron doors and is built in the Egypto-Doric style. The name of its architect is disputed and could be either Alexander Jackson David or Henry Austin. The most important room in the building is the Inner Temple, a fourteen feet square big room with an iron door. The room carries the number 322 - a number of a great importance for the Order, since 322 B.C. is the year in which Eulogia took her place in the pantheon.

Inside the Inner Temple there is a case which contains a skeleton that the Bonesmen refer at as Madame Pampadour. They also have a skull they refer at as "Geronimo", which is said to have been stolen by George W. Bush's grandfather, Yale '17. In the 1980s' under the pressure of Ned Anderson, Arizona chairman and former Apache tribal, the secret society had to present the skull in question, but it didn't match to Anderson's description and was therefore returned to the Skull and Bones, who despite the mismatch consider it Geronimo's skull.