Elihu (secret society)
Encyclopedia
Elihu, founded in 1903, is the sixth oldest secret society
at Yale University
, New Haven, CT. While similar to Skull and Bones
, Scroll and Key
and Wolf's Head
societies in charter and function, Elihu favors privacy over overt secrecy. Founded in 1903 as "the first non-secret senior society," Elihu held itself up as a model of openness at a time "when prestige of membership in a senior society was reaching its zenith."
To this end, Elihu is the only society whose building, located at 175 Elm Street, has windows, though they are blinded. Like the other societies, the organization's building is closed to non-members. Elihu is likely the first society to tap an undergraduate from an ethnic minority – Henry Roe Cloud
, a Native American
who graduated in 1910 – in keeping with its reputation for diversity
. It was also one of the first senior societies to tap women. It takes its name from Elihu Yale
.
Elihu’s purposes are realized through an educational and social program, which seeks to enrich the undergraduate experience of each member and to foster a strong connection between all Elihu members, undergraduate and graduate. During the Spring Tap process, sixteen rising seniors are elected into membership of Elihu. In its earlier days, Elihu offered application to the society to all of the junior class, so that no one would be overlooked in choosing its sixteen members. From its earliest days, the society has favored those who leaned toward literary pursuits, acting, teaching and the law. Elihu Society's taps among the Yale class of 1914, for instance, included Rufus King, president of the Yale Dramatic Association and Newbold Noyes, Sr.
, chairman of the Yale Literary Magazine
and later publisher of the Washington Evening Star newspaper. Elihu's eclectic membership and progressive admittance policies led The Yale Daily News to dub it "a left-wing society" in 2002.
In a March 2000 essay on Yale's societies in Salon.com
, Jacques Leslie, a Jew from a Democratic family in California, recalled learning he would be tapped for Skull and Bones
. "I was leaning towards Elihu," wrote Leslie, who later became a journalist
and author, "the sole above-ground society that was headquartered in an actual frame house with windows." When the Bonesmen arrived to tap Leslie, he shouted "Reject!" The surprised expression on the Bonesman's face was printed on the following day's New York Times second front page. "Skull was first," noted The Times in its caption, "but he chose Elihu."
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman was also courted by Skull and Bones, despite the fact that he wrote editorials critical of the society in the Yale Daily News
. "Heresy of all heresies," Lieberman wrote in The News, "it would be wonderful if, as a symbolic gesture, the societies some day put windows in their buildings. No other institution seems to separate the haves from the have-nots so forcefully in the eyes of students."
But Skull and Bones chose to ignore Lieberman's complaints and tapped him anyway. Lieberman rejected Bones in favor of Elihu. "It was too old Yalie," Lieberman told a friend about Bones. "Instead," noted The Los Angeles Times, Lieberman "joined the Elihu Society, a more intellectual club."
The political journalist Jacob Weisberg
, formerly editor of Slate
, was similarly offered membership in Skull and Bones by Senator John Kerry
. Weisberg declined, citing Bones' exclusion of women. Shortly afterwards Weisberg was persuaded by The Washington Posts Robert G. Kaiser
to join Elihu instead.
Selection is now performed behind closed doors, in keeping with the other major societies. Consideration for membership in Elihu is given to those juniors in the College who are nominated by current undergraduate and graduate members.
Selection is based on three pillars: excellence, diversity, and leadership. The society is named for Elihu Yale
, the University's first major benefactor and namesake.
The Elihu program is similar to that of the other secret societies: personal histories and perspectives are shared among the current delegates, with formal meetings each Thursday and Sunday of the academic year. The sharing of personal stories became a plot device in a movie directed by Elihu member Alan Hruska (class of 1955), who jettisoned a career as a trial lawyer to become a film director. Hruska's 2009 film Reunion explored a mythical reunion of fellow society members some 23 years after graduation, and was loosely inspired by a gathering of Hruska's own Elihu delegation.
Elihu tapped as a member for the delegation of 1932, in the depth of The Great Depression, a small-town Tennessee
boy strapped for cash who was grateful for the $1,000 he received as senior aide of Pierson College
as it covered half the year's outlay for college. The student, John Templeton
, went on to a career as pioneer of international investing, founder of one of the nation's largest mutual fund companies, and patron of a philanthropic enterprise
, now run by his son, also an Elihu member. Templeton was knighted by the Queen.
While Sir John Templeton used his fortune to endow a foundation devoted to Christian thought, other Elihu members had a different take on their Elihu experience. Paul Monette
, an author and gay rights activist, who portrayed himself to fellow delegation members as a depressive rather than actively gay, became, following his graduation, a prominent author and spokesman for the gay community.
Elihu membership has included journalists, authors, academics, independent and documentary filmmakers, U.S. Ambassadors, government officials, urban planners, artists, members of Congress
, social activists, governors, actors, composers, a Chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve
, pop singers, medical doctors, architects, United Nations
officials, environmental lawyers, United States Senators, songwriters, businessmen, foundation executives, environmentalists and others.
. The three-story colonial-era
white clapboard house is, in fact, the oldest of all Yale's secret society buildings, and purportedly one of the oldest original structures in the United States still in regular use. Its brick basement is older still, constructed in the early 17th century, and later frequented by colonists sympathetic to the English cause when it became known as the Tory Tavern, a central locale of the Revolutionary War. Following the War, the town of New Haven confiscated the building from its Loyalist owner for his activities.
The building has also been expanded to the rear several times. During the demonstrations and student strikes associated with the New Haven Black Panther trials
and other civil unrest in 1970, numbers of the twelve thousand protesters at times found refuge inside the Elihu building.
The building is among the largest of the societies, belying the modest clapboard facade, and contains two single guest rooms in addition to beds for all the current undergraduate members, as well as a large formal meeting room, a library, formal dining room, and an informal 'tap room' in the basement. The club also has a section of the old Yale Fence
in its basement, a relic from the famous structure removed in 1888.
Another tradition on campus is that Elihu contains original papers of the author James Fenimore Cooper
, even drafts of his epic novel The Last of the Mohicans
, in its collection. (Author Cooper wasn't a member of Elihu as he was expelled from Yale in 1805, a century before the society was founded.)
, an Elihu member. The 2005 lecture was delivered by actor Sam Waterston
, also an Elihu member.
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. While similar to Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
, Scroll and Key
Scroll and Key
The Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is the wealthiest and second oldest Yale secret society...
and Wolf's Head
Wolf's Head (secret society)
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...
societies in charter and function, Elihu favors privacy over overt secrecy. Founded in 1903 as "the first non-secret senior society," Elihu held itself up as a model of openness at a time "when prestige of membership in a senior society was reaching its zenith."
To this end, Elihu is the only society whose building, located at 175 Elm Street, has windows, though they are blinded. Like the other societies, the organization's building is closed to non-members. Elihu is likely the first society to tap an undergraduate from an ethnic minority – Henry Roe Cloud
Henry Roe Cloud
Henry Roe was a Native American who distinguished himself as an educator, college administrator, U.S. Federal Government official , Presbyterian minister, and reformer....
, a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who graduated in 1910 – in keeping with its reputation for diversity
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. It was also one of the first senior societies to tap women. It takes its name from Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale was a Welsh merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honour.- Life :...
.
Mission
According to the only public description of the organization, Elihu is "a private Senior Society at Yale University," the purposes of which are "to foster among its members, by earnest work and good fellowship a stronger affection for Yale; a broader view of undergraduate life and its aims; a deeper and more helpful friendship for one another; and to give its members, after graduation, an additional tie to bind them to Yale and to each other."Elihu’s purposes are realized through an educational and social program, which seeks to enrich the undergraduate experience of each member and to foster a strong connection between all Elihu members, undergraduate and graduate. During the Spring Tap process, sixteen rising seniors are elected into membership of Elihu. In its earlier days, Elihu offered application to the society to all of the junior class, so that no one would be overlooked in choosing its sixteen members. From its earliest days, the society has favored those who leaned toward literary pursuits, acting, teaching and the law. Elihu Society's taps among the Yale class of 1914, for instance, included Rufus King, president of the Yale Dramatic Association and Newbold Noyes, Sr.
Newbold Noyes, Jr.
Newbold Noyes, Jr. was an American publisher, journalist and newspaper editor.-Biography:Noyes went from war correspondent in the 1940s to editor in the 1960s. After graduating from Yale University in 1941, Mr. Noyes joined The Washington Evening Star as a reporter, then served as an ambulance...
, chairman of the Yale Literary Magazine
Yale Literary Magazine
The Yale Literary Magazine, founded in 1836, is the oldest literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry and fiction by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year.The magazine is published biannually...
and later publisher of the Washington Evening Star newspaper. Elihu's eclectic membership and progressive admittance policies led The Yale Daily News to dub it "a left-wing society" in 2002.
In a March 2000 essay on Yale's societies in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, Jacques Leslie, a Jew from a Democratic family in California, recalled learning he would be tapped for Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
. "I was leaning towards Elihu," wrote Leslie, who later became a journalist
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
and author, "the sole above-ground society that was headquartered in an actual frame house with windows." When the Bonesmen arrived to tap Leslie, he shouted "Reject!" The surprised expression on the Bonesman's face was printed on the following day's New York Times second front page. "Skull was first," noted The Times in its caption, "but he chose Elihu."
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman was also courted by Skull and Bones, despite the fact that he wrote editorials critical of the society in 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...
. "Heresy of all heresies," Lieberman wrote in The News, "it would be wonderful if, as a symbolic gesture, the societies some day put windows in their buildings. No other institution seems to separate the haves from the have-nots so forcefully in the eyes of students."
But Skull and Bones chose to ignore Lieberman's complaints and tapped him anyway. Lieberman rejected Bones in favor of Elihu. "It was too old Yalie," Lieberman told a friend about Bones. "Instead," noted The Los Angeles Times, Lieberman "joined the Elihu Society, a more intellectual club."
The political journalist Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company. Weisberg is also a Newsweek columnist. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008...
, formerly editor of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, was similarly offered membership in Skull and Bones by Senator John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
. Weisberg declined, citing Bones' exclusion of women. Shortly afterwards Weisberg was persuaded by The Washington Posts Robert G. Kaiser
Robert G. Kaiser
Robert G. Kaiser is associate editor and senior correspondent of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1963.-Career:Kaiser began at The Washington Post as a summer intern while still a college student. He has served as a special correspondent in London , a reporter on the city desk in...
to join Elihu instead.
Selection is now performed behind closed doors, in keeping with the other major societies. Consideration for membership in Elihu is given to those juniors in the College who are nominated by current undergraduate and graduate members.
Selection is based on three pillars: excellence, diversity, and leadership. The society is named for Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale was a Welsh merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honour.- Life :...
, the University's first major benefactor and namesake.
The Elihu program is similar to that of the other secret societies: personal histories and perspectives are shared among the current delegates, with formal meetings each Thursday and Sunday of the academic year. The sharing of personal stories became a plot device in a movie directed by Elihu member Alan Hruska (class of 1955), who jettisoned a career as a trial lawyer to become a film director. Hruska's 2009 film Reunion explored a mythical reunion of fellow society members some 23 years after graduation, and was loosely inspired by a gathering of Hruska's own Elihu delegation.
Elihu tapped as a member for the delegation of 1932, in the depth of The Great Depression, a small-town Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
boy strapped for cash who was grateful for the $1,000 he received as senior aide of Pierson College
Pierson College
Pierson College is a residential college founded in 1933 at Yale University. The College takes its name from Abraham Pierson , one of the founders of the Collegiate School, which later became Yale University. A statue of Abraham Pierson stands on Yale's Old Campus...
as it covered half the year's outlay for college. The student, John Templeton
John Templeton
Sir John Marks Templeton was an American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist.-Biography:...
, went on to a career as pioneer of international investing, founder of one of the nation's largest mutual fund companies, and patron of a philanthropic enterprise
John Templeton Foundation
"The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organizationthat funds inter-disciplinary research about human purpose and ultimate reality. It is usually referred to simply as the Templeton Foundation...
, now run by his son, also an Elihu member. Templeton was knighted by the Queen.
While Sir John Templeton used his fortune to endow a foundation devoted to Christian thought, other Elihu members had a different take on their Elihu experience. Paul Monette
Paul Monette
Paul Landry Monette was an American author, poet, and activist best remembered for his essays about gay relationships.-Biography:...
, an author and gay rights activist, who portrayed himself to fellow delegation members as a depressive rather than actively gay, became, following his graduation, a prominent author and spokesman for the gay community.
Elihu membership has included journalists, authors, academics, independent and documentary filmmakers, U.S. Ambassadors, government officials, urban planners, artists, members of Congress
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, social activists, governors, actors, composers, a Chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
, pop singers, medical doctors, architects, United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
officials, environmental lawyers, United States Senators, songwriters, businessmen, foundation executives, environmentalists and others.
Architecture
The organization is housed in a structure acquired by the Society in 1911 which looks out on the New Haven GreenNew Haven Green
The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New Haven, and was designed and surveyed by colonist...
. The three-story colonial-era
Colonial house
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English , French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, German Colonial and Georgian Colonial...
white clapboard house is, in fact, the oldest of all Yale's secret society buildings, and purportedly one of the oldest original structures in the United States still in regular use. Its brick basement is older still, constructed in the early 17th century, and later frequented by colonists sympathetic to the English cause when it became known as the Tory Tavern, a central locale of the Revolutionary War. Following the War, the town of New Haven confiscated the building from its Loyalist owner for his activities.
The building has also been expanded to the rear several times. During the demonstrations and student strikes associated with the New Haven Black Panther trials
New Haven Black Panther trials
In 1970 there were a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. All indictments stemmed from the murder of nineteen-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21,...
and other civil unrest in 1970, numbers of the twelve thousand protesters at times found refuge inside the Elihu building.
The building is among the largest of the societies, belying the modest clapboard facade, and contains two single guest rooms in addition to beds for all the current undergraduate members, as well as a large formal meeting room, a library, formal dining room, and an informal 'tap room' in the basement. The club also has a section of the old Yale Fence
Old Campus
The Old Campus is a complex of buildings at Yale University on the block at the northwest end of the green in New Haven, Connecticut, consisting of dormitories, classrooms, chapels and offices...
in its basement, a relic from the famous structure removed in 1888.
Another tradition on campus is that Elihu contains original papers of the author James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
, even drafts of his epic novel The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in February 1826. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known...
, in its collection. (Author Cooper wasn't a member of Elihu as he was expelled from Yale in 1805, a century before the society was founded.)
Elihu Yale Lecture
The society sponsors the Elihu Yale Lecture, the first of which was delivered in 2002 by architect and city planner Alexander GarvinAlexander Garvin
Alexander Garvin is a noted American urban planner, educator, and author. He is currently in private practice at Alexander Garvin & Associates in New York City and is also an adjunct professor at Yale’s School of Architecture...
, an Elihu member. The 2005 lecture was delivered by actor Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
, also an Elihu member.