Explorers Club (1904)
New York’s Explorers Club is sounds like one of those clubs that focus on just travel. But they ended up with an intense reputation. It was dedicated to scientific exploration and multidisciplinary research. It is most notorious for their 47th Annual Banquet in 1951 than the actual activities of the club. They famously consumed flesh of a wooly mammoth, a 250,000 year old beast discovered in an Alaskan glacier.
But the reality is slightly less jaw-dropping. Yale University scientists found, based on a sample of the leftover meat from that dinner, that guests were actually consuming green sea turtle. As one of the Yale researchers said, “To me, this was a joke that no one got. It’s like a Halloween party where you put your hand in spaghetti, but they tell you it’s brains. In this case, everyone believed it.”
Where did we find this stuff? Here Are Our Sources:
Aston, T. & Brock, M. (1984). The History of the University of Oxford. Oxford University Press
Bompas, G. (1885) Life of Frank Buckland. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Lord, E. (2010). The Hellfire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and secret societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Timbs, J (1872) Club Life of London. London: John Camden Hotten.
Walter, A. (1871). The life and death of the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks. London: Bradbury, Evans.
Ward, E. (1756) A Compleat and Humorous Account Of all the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the Cities of London and Westminster. London: J.Wren, Bible and Crown.
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Kit-Cat Club. Phillip Carter, 2005.
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The club dedicated to eating unconventional aquatic creatures. Anne Ewebank, 2017.
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The U.K.’s most dangerous supper club. Benloti, 2011.
