Manuscript Society

Manuscript Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each academic year 16 rising seniors are inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion. Manuscript is reputedly the "Arts and letters" society at Yale.[1]

History and traditions

Founded in 1952, Manuscript was Yale's seventh "landed" senior society; that is, its alumni trust owns the society's meeting place or "tomb". Manuscript was one of the first of the senior societies to offer membership to rising female Yale College seniors.

Each delegation is selected by consensus among Manuscript alumni, trustees, current delegates and significant others, unlike other Yale societies where undergraduate members more freely select, recruit, and initiate their society's next delegation.[2]

The Wrexham Foundation is the society's alumni arm. Since 1956, the foundation has underwritten a scholarship in the humanities for a "senior who shall be judged to have written the best senior essay in the field of the humanities." Administered by Yale, it is given in memory of Wallace Notestein, M.A. 1903, Ph.D. 1908, Litt.D. 1951.[3]

Manuscript briefly played host to the 1991-92 classes of Skull and Bones, who were temporarily locked out of their own tomb by alumni who objected to its undergraduates' decision to offer membership to women.[1]

It holds the number 344 to be sacred.[1] The Society supposedly holds Enlightenment ideals, and the sun and sunflowers are both important symbols to members.[4] The society also retained close connections with the campus literary society Chi Delta Theta in the early 1950s.[5]

The society holds an annual gathering in its tomb on Halloween. A Manuscript event is described in the novel Joe College by Tom Perrotta.[6]

Manuscript is part of a four-society "Consortium" with the Aurelian Honor Society, Book and Snake and Berzelius.

Architecture

Designed by King-lui Wu, Manuscript's tomb is mid-century modern, unusual amid other societies' elaborate mid-to-late-19th century buildings. It appears from the outside to have only one level, yet conceals several subterranean floors. The tomb holds a vast collection of notable modern and contemporary art.[7] The Yale University Art Gallery is said to have temporarily stored pieces there.[1] Wu said that he designed the building "for privacy, not for secrecy."[8] Dan Kiley was responsible for landscaping and Josef Albers for the brickwork intaglio mural.

Notable members

Journalist and historian Richard Rhodes (1937-) was a member of the class of '59.
Four time Presidential adviser David Gergen (1942-), was a member of the class of '63.
Prominent senator H. John Heinz III (1938-1991) was a member of the class of '64.
Two time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster (1962-) was a member of the class of '85.
CNN broadcaster and journalist Anderson Cooper (1967-) was a member of the class of '89.
NameYale ClassKnown for
Matthew Bruccoli1953Preeminent expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald[1]
Ted Morgan1954Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist[1]
Michael Pertschuk1954Consumer advocate, author and former government official[1]
David Calleo1955Intellectual historian, political economist at Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University[1]
Henry Geldzahler1957Art historian and curator[1]
Anthony Lapham1958CIA Lawyer[1]
Stephen F. Williams1958Senior Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit[1]
Richard Maltby, Jr.1959Tony Award-winning director[1]
Richard Rhodes1959Pulitzer Prize-winning author[1]
H. John Heinz III1960US senator
Dale Purves1960Neuroscientist, Director of the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders program at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School[1]
Robert Glick1962Former director of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research[1]
David Gergen1963Presidential Advisor and Political Commentator[1][9]
Robert Fiore1964Film producer and co-director of Pumping Iron, a documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger[1]
Paul Steiger1964Editor-in-Chief of ProPublica, formerly the Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal[1]
Charles Derber1965Professor of Sociology and social critic[1]
Juan Negrín Fetter1967Director, Wixarika Research Center, founder of the Party of the Left at Yale[1][10]
Richard H. Brodhead19689th President of Duke University[1]
Alan Bernheimer1970Poet[1]
Rodger Kamenetz1970Professor and certified dream therapist[1]
Soni Oyekan1970Leading chemical engineer and inventor[1]
Jane Maienschein1972Director of the Center for Biology and Society, at Arizona State University[1]
Eli Whitney Debevoise II1974U.S. Director of the World Bank[1]
Rosanna Warren1976Poet and scholar[1]
Karl Zinsmeister1981Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under George W. Bush[1]
Byron Kim1983Minimalist artist[1]
Cheryl Henson1984Puppeteer and President of the Jim Henson foundation[1]
Jodie Foster1985Actress[1]
Tamar Gendler1987Professor, chair of the Yale University Department of Philosophy[1]
Scott Peterson1988Author and journalist, Moscow bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor[1]
Jen Banbury1989Playwright, author of novel Like a Hole in the Head and journalist
Anderson Cooper1989News Anchor[9][11]
Jonathan Zittrain1991Professor of Internet Law at Harvard University[1]
Noah Bookbinder1995Professor of Law at George Washington University, chief counsel for Sen. Patrick Leahy[1][12]
James Prosek1997Author and naturalist[1][13]
Maia Brewton1998Child actress and lawyer[1]
Elisabeth Waterston1999Actor[1][14]
Brooke Lyons2003Actor
Zoe Kazan2005Actor and playwright
Josef AlbersHon.Artist[1]
Cleanth BrooksHon.Literary Critic[1]
Robert A. DahlHon.Professor of Political Science at Yale University, considered the "Dean" of political science[1]
Vincent GiroudHon.Historian of French Opera[1][15]
Gary HallerHon.Professor of Chemistry at Yale University and Master of Jonathan Edwards College[1]
Cyrus HamlinHon.Literary critic and longtime Yale professor[1]
E. D. Hirsch, Jr.Hon.Literary critic and proponent of Cultural literacy[1]
Patrick McCaugheyHon.Former director of the Yale Center for British Art[1]
Ved MehtaHon.Author and advocate for the blind[1]
Wallace NotesteinHon.Sterling Professor of English history at Yale[1]
Richard RephannHon.Former director of the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments[1]
Duncan RobinsonHon.Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, Chairman of the Henry Moore Foundation and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum[1]
William Kelly SimpsonHon.Art historian and Master of Timothy Dwight College[1]
Richard SelzerHon.Surgeon, author and professor of surgery at Yale[1]
Steven SmithHon.Political Scientist and Master of Branford College[1]
Robert Farris ThompsonHon.Art historian and Master of Timothy Dwight College[1]
Robert Storr Hon. American curator, critic, painter, and writer.

See also

References

Sources

  • Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. (Back Bay Books : 2003). ISBN 0-316-73561-2
  • Perrotta, Tom. Joe College: A Novel (2000) ISBN 0-312-36178-5
  • Light & Truth Publication
  • King-lui Wu
  • Architectural Record, November 1965. "Ingenious Use of a Narrow Site".
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