What is the origin of the words “Skull and bones”?
The Secret Origins of Skull & Bones The story begins at Yale, where three threads of American social history — espionage, drug smuggling and secret societies — intertwine into one. Elihu Yale was born near Boston, educated in London, and served with the British East India Company, eventually becoming governor of Fort Saint George, Madras, in 1687. He amassed a great fortune from trade and returned to England in 1699. Yale became known as quite a philanthropist; upon receiving a request from the Collegiate School in Connecticut, he sent a donation and a gift of books. After subsequent bequests, Cotton Mather suggested the school be named Yale College, in 1718. A statue of Nathan Hale stands on Old Campus at Yale University. There is a copy of that statue in front of the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Yet another stands in front of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (where George H.W. Bush (’48) went to prep school and joined a secret society at age twelve). Nathan Ha
