A surprise birthday gift from my Alpha Gamma Delta and P.E.O. friend, Nann Blaine Hilyard, set me on a quest to find out more about her delightful gift. It was wrapped in star paper and tied with a yellow ribbon, harkening, I’m sure, to our ties in P.E.O., a philanthropic, educational organization.
The book is one I have seen before. There’s a copy in the Pi Beta Phi archives, carefully filled in, with a few pictures pasted down, chronicling an alumna’s life in her chapter. The one Nann sent me is blank. Her note, “Just think how convenient it would have been for the Founders* (*Yours, mine, ours, or others’!) to have this handy volume, perfect for the next time someone says, ‘Let’s start a society of our own!.'”
Entitled My Sorority, it was published in Chicago by Reilly and Britton. Louise Perrett illustrated it. Born in Chicago, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later became an instructor.
A 1910 Publisher’s Weekly gave a description of the book, “A memory book for girls who belong to the well-known ‘Greek-letter’ societies in high school or college. Exquisite decorated headings on every page by Louise Perrett – name, colors, secret motto, pin, grip, initiation, spreads, banquets, ‘rushing’ parties, officers, convention, chapters, etc. Printed in colors on tinted stationery, decorated half-crash binding, dainty cover design, beautiful box, Large 8 vo., 200 pgs. List price $1.50 edition deluxe. Full Monaco binding, gold edges, silk marker, exquisite, boxed $3.00.”
An advertisement in the back of a 1912 copy of Flying Girl and Her Chum, a book by Edith Van Dyne (a pen name of Lyman Frank Baum, author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz), also mentions a “Swiss velvet ooze” edition for $2.50.
In case you’re curious, as I first was when I read the term, “German” (in “Germans, Proms, Dances,” on page 125) refers to “an intricate dance for many couples,” or “a party for dancing at which this dance is featured.” I have come upon that phrase “german” as a form of social event in two other instances. Both related to events on the University of Illinois campus. One was in conjunction with the founding of the Illinois Zeta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi, “The first social event given in honor of the chapter was a ‘German’ with Capt. And Mrs. Thomas J. Smith of 407 West University Avenue as hosts. It took place on Saturday, January 25, 1896 from four to six p.m.”
The other mention of it was from an 1894 issue of Sigma Chi Fraternity’s magazine. The entry for the Kappa Kappa Chapter, also at the University of Illinois, noted, “On the evening of May 31 (1894) the young ladies, headed by Miss Mary Burnham, gave to Kappa Kappa a complimentary german in the Champaign Opera House.”
Louise Perrett also illustrated several other books similar to My Sorority. One was My Fraternity, “a memory book for boys with additional illustrations by Ja. O. Smith.” Others books she illustrated include: The Girl Graduate Her Own Scrapbook; Recipes: My Friends’ and My Own; and Our New House: How We Plan to Build It: A Book for Sketches, Ideas and Suggestions which was published in 1906.
