top of page
On April 8th 1773 in the middle of the night, a group of five Yale College students and five New Havenites performed a series of initiation rituals to celebrate the founding of a new kind society at Yale. The ground was covered in candles, wax dripping on the stone. Cloaked figures stood motionless in a semi-circle, humming softly in the New Haven night. The only other sound was the gentle swaying of the Elm Trees. One student approached the center of the circle, removed a piece of parchment from his cloak, and read aloud the following declaration:
Play While Reading
Though widely forgotten today, The Society was once an active force at Yale, New Haven, and Connecticut, at large. It attracted hundreds of members all convening every Wednesday and Saturday in front of Phelps Hall—open for all to see, for all to join. Membership quickly outpaced that of its peer institutions, angering those other societies’ more powerful alums, who wanted vengeance. They vowed to bury us.
bottom of page