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Scroll and Key
Founded	1842; 183 years ago (1842) Yale University
Type	Fraternity
Affiliation	Independent
Status	Active
Scope	Local
Member badge
Chapters	1
Nickname	Keys
Headquarters	484 College Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511 United States

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. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies at Yale, along with Skull and Bones and Wolf's Head. Each spring the society admits 15 rising seniors to participate in its activities and carry on its traditions.

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.

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."

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. 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."
• Members of the society sign letters to each other "YiT", as opposed to Skull and Bones' "yours in 322".
• Outside of its tap-related activities, the society has been known to hold two major annual events called "Z Session".

Tomb

The society's building, called a "tomb", was designed in the Moorish Revival style by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed in 1870. 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." Later, undergraduates described the building as a "striped zebra Billiard Hall" in a supplement to a Yale yearbook. More recently, it has been described by an undergraduate publication as being "the nicest building in all of New Haven".

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". 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.

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

Notable members

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.

• Secret societies at Yale
• 1842 establishments in Connecticut
• Student organizations established in 1842
• Secret societies in the United States
• Local fraternities and sororities
• Collegiate secret societies