Scroll and Key

The Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Yale secret societies and reputedly the wealthiest.^[1] The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with Skull and Bones and Wolf's Head.^[2] Each spring the society admits 15 rising seniors to participate in its activities and carry on its traditions.

Scroll and Key
Scroll and Key badge
Founded	1842; 182 years ago (1842) Yale University
Type	Senior Secret society
Affiliation	Independent
Status	Active
Scope	Local
Chapters	1
Nickname	Keys
Headquarters	484 College Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511 United States

History

Scroll and Key was established by John Addison Porter, with aid from several members of the Class of 1842 (including Leonard Case Jr. and Theodore Runyon) and a member of the Class of 1843 (William L. Kingsley), after disputes over elections to Skull and Bones Society. Kingsley is the namesake of the alumni organization, the Kingsley Trust Association (KTA), incorporated years after its founding.

Members of the 1866 delegation

Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg wrote that "up until as recent a date as 1860, Keys had great difficulty in making up its crowd, rarely being able to secure the full fifteen upon the night of giving out its elections." However, the society was on the upswing: "the old order of things, however, has recently come to an end, and Keys is now in possession of a hall far superior...not only to Bones hall, but to any college-society hall in America."^[3]

In addition to financing its activities, Scroll and Key has made significant donations to Yale over the years. The John Addison Porter Prize, awarded annually since 1872, and in 1917 the endowment for the founding of the Yale University Press, which has funded the publication of The Yale Shakespeare and sponsored the Yale Younger Poets Series, are gifts from "Keys".

Traditions

• At the close of Thursday and Sunday sessions, members are known to sing the "Troubadour" song on the front steps of the Society's hall, a remnant of the tradition of public singing at Yale.^[4][5] The song (written in the 1820s by Thomas Haynes Bayly) was recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford on his 1956 album, This Lusty Land, as "Gaily the Troubador".
• In keeping with the practice of adopting secret letters or symbols such as Skull and Bones' "322," Manuscript's "344," and the Pundits' "T.B.I.Y.T.B," Scroll and Key is known to use the letters "C.S.P. and C.C.J."^[6]
• Members of the society sign letters to each other "YiT", as opposed to Skull and Bones' "yours in 322".^[6]
• Outside of its tap-related activities, the society has been known to hold two major annual events called "Z Session".^[6]

Tomb

Scroll and Key's tomb

Tomb during its expansion, 1901

The society's building, called a "tomb", was designed in the Moorish Revival style by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed in 1870.^[7] A later expansion was completed in 1901. Architectural historian Patrick Pinnell includes an in-depth discussion of Keys' building in his 1999 history of Yale's campus, relating the then-notable cost overruns associated with the Keys structure and its aesthetic significance within the campus landscape. Pinnell's history shares the fact that the land was purchased from another Yale secret society, Berzelius (at that time, a Sheffield Scientific School society).

Regarding the tomb's distinctive appearance, Pinnell noted that "19th-century artists' studios commonly had exotic orientalia lying about to suggest that the painter was sophisticated, well traveled, and in touch with mysterious powers; Hunt's Scroll and Key is one instance in which the trope got turned into a building."^[8] Later, undergraduates described the building as a "striped zebra Billiard Hall" in a supplement to a Yale yearbook.^[9] More recently, it has been described by an undergraduate publication as being "the nicest building in all of New Haven".^[10]

Membership

Scroll and Key taps annually a delegation of fifteen, composed of men and women of the junior class, to serve the following year. Membership is offered to a diverse group of highly accomplished juniors, specifically those who have "achieved in any field, academic, extra-curricular, or personal".^[11] Delegations frequently include editors of the Yale Daily News and other publications, artists and musicians, social and political activists, athletes of distinction, entrepreneurs, and high-achieving scholars.^[12][13]

Mark Twain was an honorary member, under the auspices of Joseph Twichell, Yale College Class of 1859.^[14]

Notable members

Dean Acheson

Fareed Zakaria

Sargent Shriver

Cole Porter

Calvin Trillin

Harvey Cushing

Garry Trudeau

Name	Yale class	Notability	References
Leonard Case Jr.	1842	Founder of Case School of Applied Science, later Case Western Reserve University	[15]
Theodore Runyon	1842	Envoy and Ambassador to Germany; Battle of Bull Run	[15]
Carter Henry Harrison	1845	Mayor of Chicago and U.S. Representative	[15]
Homer Sprague	1852	President of the University of North Dakota
Randall L. Gibson	1853	U.S. Senator, Confederate Brigadier-General, and president of Tulane University	[15]
George Shiras Jr.	1853	U.S. Supreme Court Justice	[15]
John Dalzell	1865	U.S. Congress	[15]
George Bird Grinnell	1870	Anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer	[16]
Edward Salisbury Dana	1870	American mineralogist	[15]
Fred Dubois	1872	U.S. Senator	[15]
Henry deForest	1876	Southern Pacific Railroad	[15]
Gilbert Colgate	1883	President and Chairman of Colgate & Co.	[15]
George Edgar Vincent	1885	President of the University of Minnesota; President of the Rockefeller Foundation	[17]
James Gamble Rogers	1889	architect, designed many of Yale's buildings	[17]
Herbert Parsons	1890	U.S. Congress	[15]
Harvey Cushing	1891	Neurosurgeon, considered father of brain surgery	[17]
William Nelson Runyon	1892	Acting Governor of New Jersey	[15]
Frank Polk	1894	Secretary of State, Davis Polk & Wardwell, managed the conclusion to World War I	[15]
Allen Wardwell	1895	Davis Polk & Wardwell; Bank of New York; Vice-President of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce	[15]
Lewis Sheldon	1896	Paris Peace Conference, Olympic medalist	[15]
Cornelius Vanderbilt III	1895	Brigadier General in the U.S. Army during the World War I	[17]
William Adams Delano	1895	architect; designed many of Yale's buildings	[15]
Joseph Medill McCormick	1900	U.S. Senate and publisher of the Chicago Tribune	[15]
Joseph M. Patterson	1901	Founder of the New York Daily News; manager of the Chicago Tribune	[17]
Robert R. McCormick	1903	Chicago Tribune; Kirkland & Ellis[15]	[15]
James C. Auchincloss	1908	U.S. Congress, Governor of the NYSE., US Military Intelligence World War I	[15]
William C. Bullitt	1912	Ambassador to France, Ambassador to the Soviet Russia	[15]
Mortimer R. Proctor	1912	Governor of Vermont	[15]
Cole Porter	1913	Entertainer, songwriter	[18]
Dean Acheson	1915	51st Secretary of State	[15]
Wayne Chatfield-Taylor	1916	President, Export-Import Bank; Undersecretary of Commerce; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury	[19]
Dickinson W. Richards	1917	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine	[15]
Ethan A. H. Shepley	1918	Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis	[15]
John Enders	1919	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine	[15]
Brewster Jennings	1920	Founder and president of the Socony Mobil Oil Company Standard Oil of New York	[15]
Seymour H. Knox	1920	American retailer, F. W. Woolworth Company	[15]
Richardson Dilworth	1921	Mayor of Philadelphia	[20]
William Hawks	1923	Film producer	[21]
James Stillman Rockefeller	1924	President and chairman, The First National City Bank of New York; Olympic gold medal	[15]
Huntington D. Sheldon	1925	Central Intelligence Agency; President of the Petroleum Corporation of America	[15]
Newbold Morris	1925	New York lawyer and politician	[15]
Benjamin Spock	1925	Pediatrician, author, and Olympic gold medalist	[19]
John Hay Whitney	1926	U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of New York Herald Tribune	[22]
Frederic A. Potts	1926	Chairman, Philadelphia National Bank; New Jersey Senate	[15]
Paul Mellon	1929	Philanthropist	[19]
Benjamin Brewster	1929	Director, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (later Exxon)	[15]
Raymond R. Guest	1931	U.S. Ambassador to Ireland; Special Assistant to Secretary of Defense	[15]
Donald R. McLennan	1931	Founder and chairman, insurance brokerage firm Marsh McLennan	[15]
Robert F. Wagner, Jr.	1933	Mayor of New York City	[23]
J. Peter Grace	1936	W. R. Grace & Co.
Peter H. Dominick	1937	U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland	[24]
Sargent Shriver	1938	Peace Corps; Vice-Presidential Candidate, Presidential Medal of Freedom	[15]
Cyrus Vance	1939	Secretary of State; Secretary of the Army; Chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York	[15]
Robert D. Orr	1940	Governor of Indiana; U.S. Ambassador to Singapore	[15]
Cord Meyer, Jr.	1943	Central Intelligence Agency; United World Federalists	[15]
George Roy Hill	1943	Academy Award for Directing The Sting	[15]
Frederick B. Dent	1944	U.S. Secretary of Commerce	[15]
John Vliet Lindsay	1944	Mayor of New York City, Congressman from New York City	[23]
Thomas Enders	1953	Ambassador to Spain, Ambassador to European Union, Ambassador to Canada	[15]
Philip B. Heymann	1954	Watergate Special Prosecutor, Deputy U.S. Attorney General; professor at Harvard Law School	[15]
Warren Zimmermann	1956	U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, author	[15]
Roscoe S. Suddarth	1956	President of the Middle East Institute; U.S. Ambassador to Jordan	[15]
Calvin Trillin	1957	writer	[25]
A. Bartlett Giamatti	1960	Yale University president; National League president, MLB Commissioner	[19]
Peter Beard	1961	Photographer
Garry Trudeau	1970	Doonesbury cartoonist	[19]
Stone Phillips	1977	Dateline NBC	[15]
Rick E. Lawrence	1977	Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court	[15]
Gideon Rose	1985	Foreign Affairs	[15]
Fareed Zakaria	1986	editor of Newsweek and host of CNN show
Dave Baseggio	1989	Director of Professional Scouting for the Seattle Kraken
Dahlia Lithwick	1990	Editor at Newsweek and Slate	[26]
Jeannie Rhee	1994	Special Council member for the Obstruction of Justice Investigation	[27]
Alexandra Robbins	1998	Journalist	[28]
Ari Shapiro	2000	Co-host of All Things Considered for National Public Radio	[26]

See also

• Collegiate secret societies in North America

References

1. Jackson, Abby. "7 of Yale's super-elite secret societies ranked by wealth". Business Insider. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
2. Caro, Robert (1974). The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3. OCLC 834874.
3. Four years at Yale. Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg, C.C. Chatfield & Co, 1871. p. 158.
4. Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti. James Reston, U of Nebraska Press, 1997. p. 41. ISBN 0-8032-8964-2
5. Four years at Yale. Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg, C.C. Chatfield & Co, 1871. p. 163.
6. Four years at Yale. Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg, C.C. Chatfield & Co, 1871. p. 157.
7. "Scroll and Key Tomb". June 8, 2013.
8. Pinnell, Patrick (1999). The Campus Guide: Yale University. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-56898-167-3. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
9. Andrews, John.History of the Founding of Wolf's Head, pg. 56, Lancaster Press, 1934
10. "Franco's "little place in New Haven": where will it be? [POLL]". yaleherald.com. May 6, 2010. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
11. Yale University Library Digital Collections: Compound Object Viewer Archived 2011-04-30 at the Wayback Machine
12. http://www.ivygateblog.com/?s=scroll+and+key, see membership lists
13. A cross-reference with recent members (available on IvyGateBlog.com and in print issues of the Yale Rumpus) and scholarship winners will indicate the high number of Scroll and Key members
14. Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 2, 1867–1868, University of California Press, editors Harriet E. Smith, Richard Bucci and Lin Salamo, pg. 281
15. Giamatti, A. Bartlett (1978). History of Scroll and Key, 1942–1972. The Scroll and Key Society.
16. Taliaferro, John (June 4, 2019). Grinnell: America's Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West. Liveright. ISBN 978-1-63149-014-9.
17. HP-Time.com Monday, May. 31, 1926 (May 31, 1926). "Wedlock — TIME". Time. Archived from the original on December 30, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
18. Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-73561-2.
19. "Yale's Great Oak Sees 'Tap Day' Again". The New York Times. May 21, 1915. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
20. "Tap Day Exercises are held at Yale" (PDF). New York Times. May 20, 1921. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
21. "Yale 'Tap Day' Brings Honors to Rowing Men". New York Tribune. New York, N.Y. May 18, 1923. p. 9.
22. "Yale Alumni Magazine: John Hay Whitney". Yale Alumni Publications inc. May 2002. Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
23. "Mary A. Harrison, Lawyers Fiance. Vassar Graduate Will Be Bride of John V. Lindsay, Former Lieutenant in the Navy". New York Times. October 11, 1948. p. 29. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
24. "J. Peter Grace — Business Executive, leading Catholic layman, Advisor to three U.S. Presidents — dies at age 81. | Government > Government Bodies & Offices from AllBusiness.com". Allbusiness.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
25. Remembering Denny – Google Books
26. "Archived copy". www.ctrl.org. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved January 15, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
27. "Jeannie Rhee". Diversity Journal. Retrieved 2018-01-19, January 30, 2019
28. "Skull & Bones: The Secret Society That Unites John Kerry and President Bush". Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2007.