The first senior members included Russell, Taft, and 12 other members. William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft co-founded 'the Order of the Skull and Bones'. Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 after a dispute among Yale debating societies Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and the Calliopean Society over that season's Phi Beta Kappa awards. The society is known informally as 'Bones,' and members are known as 'Bonesmen,' 'Members of The Order' or 'Initiated to The Order.' History The society's alumni organization, the Russell Trust Association, owns the organization's real estate and oversees the membership.

It is one of the 'Big Three' societies at Yale, the other two being Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bones has become a cultural institution known for its powerful alumni and various conspiracy theories. Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

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