Celebrating the Rebirth of Two NPC Alpha Chapters!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This spring two National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations are recolonizing their Alpha chapters. Zeta Tau Alpha is returning to its birthplace at Longwood University. Alpha Omicron Pi is revitalizing the chapter whose home will be the now co-ed Columbia University, with which its founding home, Barnard College, is affiliated.

Of the 26 NPC members, only ten have had their Alpha chapters open since their foundings. The ten include: Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta, both founded at DePauw University; Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta, two of the Syracuse Triad; and Alpha Sigma Alpha and Sigma Sigma Sigma, two of the Farmville Four founded at Longwood University. The remaining four organizations are: Chi Omega, founded at the University of Arkansas; Alpha Sigma Tau, founded at Eastern Michigan University; Delta Zeta, founded at Miami University (Ohio); and Sigma Delta Tau, founded at Cornell University.

The Monmouth Duo, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, were founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Pi Beta Phi was founded in 1867 and Kappa Kappa Gamma followed in 1870. In 1878, both were forced by college authorities to close their Alpha chapters. It is quite amazing that each organization was able to withstand the loss of the Alpha chapter. Pi Beta Phi recolonized in 1928. Minnie McDill McMichael, wife of  Monmouth College President Dr. T.H. McMichael, was a Pi Phi and she played a vital role in the recolonization festivities. She and Dr. McMichael, along with Monmouth resident and Pi Beta Phi Founder Clara Brownlee Hutchinson, traveled to the 1927 Pi Beta Phi Convention in Pequot, Minnesota, to help present the case of Zeta Epsilon Chi, a local organization; it petitioned to bring Pi Phi’s Alpha chapter back to life. Mrs. McMichael died shortly after the chapter was installed. Kappa Kappa Gamma returned to Monmouth College in 1934.

Two of the institutions at which the groups were founded closed. Delta Gamma, founded in 1873 at the Lewis School for Girls, closed its Alpha chapter in 1889. In 1893, Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois. Lombard College closed in 1930. Alpha Xi Delta’s charter was transferred to Knox College, across town in Galesburg; the chapter closed in 1973.

The women’s fraternity system was eliminated on several campuses. Both Alpha Omicron Pi and Alpha Epsilon Phi were founded at Barnard College. The chapters closed in 1914 when Barnard ended recognition of the NPC groups. The Macon Magnolias, Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu, closed when Wesleyan Female College withdrew recognition of the groups.  In 1984, Colby College abolished of all fraternities and sororities and Sigma Kappa’s Alpha chapter was forced to close. (Sigma Kappa’s Beta and Gamma chapters had also been at Colby, but they closed before 1900.)

Zeta Tau Alpha  and Kappa Delta, two of the Farmville Four, closed their Alpha chapters at Longwood University when they opted to joined the National Panhellenic Conference in 1909 and 1912, respectively. The other two of the Farmville Four, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha, became members of the Association of Education Sororities, the umbrella organization for the sororities located at teacher’s colleges that existed during the first half of the 1900s.

Several Alpha chapters were closed for a short time, but they are currently active and thriving chapters. Alpha Gamma Delta’s Alpha chapter at Syracuse University, founded in 1904, was closed between 2001-10.* The Alpha chapter of Delta Delta Delta, founded at Boston University in 1888, was closed between 1970-84. Delta Phi Epsilon, founded at the New York University Law School in 1917, had its Alpha chapter closed between 1966-83.

Theta Phi Alpha, founded at the University of Michigan in 1912, closed its Alpha chapter in 1944.  Phi Sigma Sigma was founded at Hunter College in 1913; its Alpha chapter closed in 1976.

 

NPC Organization Founded Institution Joined NPC Alpha Chapter Closed
Alpha Gamma Delta 1904 Syracuse University 1909 2001-10
Alpha Delta Pi 1851 Wesleyan Female College 1909 1916
Alpha Epsilon Phi 1909 Barnard College 1951 1914
Alpha Xi Delta 1893 Lombard College 1904 1973
Alpha Omicron Pi 1897 Barnard College 1905 1905-2013
Alpha Sigma Alpha 1901 Longwood University 1951
Alpha Sigma Tau 1899 Eastern Michigan University 1951
Alpha Phi 1872 Syracuse University 1902
Alpha Chi Omega 1885 DePauw University 1903
Gamma Phi Beta 1874 Syracuse University 1902
Delta Gamma 1873 Lewis School for Girls 1902 1889
Delta Delta Delta 1888 Boston University 1902 1970-84
Delta Zeta 1902 Miami University 1910
Delta Phi Epsilon 1917 NYU Law School 1951 1966-83
Zeta Tau Alpha 1898 Longwood University 1909 1906-49, 2009-13
Theta Phi Alpha 1912 University of Michigan 1951 1944
Kappa Alpha Theta 1870 DePauw University 1902
Kappa Delta 1897 Longwood University 1912 1912-49
Kappa Kappa Gamma 1870 Monmouth College 1902 1878-1934
Pi Beta Phi 1867 Monmouth College 1902 1878-1928
Sigma Delta Tau 1917 Cornell University 1951
Sigma Kappa 1874 Colby College 1905 1984
Sigma Sigma Sigma 1898 Longwood University 1951
Phi Mu 1852 Wesleyan Female College 1911 1914
Phi Sigma Sigma 1913 Hunter College 1951 1976
Chi Omega 1895 University of Arkansas 1903

* https://www.franbecque.com/2012/04/24/designed-by-members-for-members-kat-agd-azd/

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

 

Posted in Barnard College, Boston University, Colby College, DePauw University, Farmville Four, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Knox College, Lombard College, Longwood University, Miami University, Mount Holyoke College, National Panhellenic Conference, Sorority History, Syracuse University, Women's Fraternities | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Happy Founders’ Day Phi Kappa Psi!

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Today is Phi Kappa Psi’s Founders’ Day. I know this because I follow the tweets of Mike McCoy, Phi Psi’s Historian (@PhiPsiArchives). Mike has attended the National Archives Conference for Fraternities and Sororities.  At the conference in the summer of 2012, he even tutored us in how to use twitter to educate members about fraternity history. Mike is the pro at it and my hat is off to him!

Phi Kappa Psi was founded on February 19, 1852 at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore, students at the college, helped tend to the town’s residents who had been stricken during a typhoid outbreak. When they met at the Letterman home 161 years ago today, they discussed founding an organization that would “grow to include men of honor and good will at colleges throughout America.”  Phi Psi’s fourth chapter was founded at Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania. In 1865, Washington College and Jefferson College merged to form Washington and Jefferson College.

While a student at University of Virginia, future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson became a member of Phi Kappa Psi’s Virginia Alpha chapter. As a collegian, he served as chapter president and attended the Grand Arch Council at the St. Marc Hotel in Washington, D.C.  He later transferred his membership to the Maryland Alpha chapter at Johns Hopkins University; he also served as its chapter president.

The fraternity’s leadership school is named for President Wilson. Since 1960, the Woodrow Wilson Leadership School has been providing Phi Kappa Psis with educational opportunities.

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.

  • Woodrow Wilson, Phi Kappa Psi


     

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A Fraternity of Firsts – Heth Aleph Re at Tufts University

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

My thanks to Charlie Trantanella, Sigma Nu,  for this contribution. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Arizona, he is currently writing a book entitled “Brown and Blue and Greek: A history of fraternities, sororities, and early student organizations at Tufts University”. He plans to publish his work in 2015.

For the students at Tufts College, the start of classes in the fall of 1892 was a radical time indeed. That semester, for the first time in the college’s forty-year history, women were admitted on equal terms with the men. Co-education had finally come to the small school founded by the Universalist church. But while the women were allowed to enroll at Tufts College, they were not exactly welcomed with open arms – most of the faculty and nearly all of the male students and alumni were defiantly opposed to women in the classroom, and they were not shy about making their thoughts known. Despite the cold shoulder, ten women enrolled in the fall of 1892, representing about 5% of the total student body. As pioneers, though, they came to a campus that had absolutely nothing to offer them outside of class: no clubs, no dormitories, no athletic teams, no nothing. Well, not quite. For the two women enrolled in the Tufts Divinity School, there was one organization that welcomed them: the local Hebrew-letter fraternity, Heth Aleph Res.

Heth Aleph Res logo from the 1894 Brown and Blue yearbook of Tufts College

Started by eight men just a year earlier, Heth Aleph Res was a secret fraternity for Tufts divinity school students who longed for a closer association. Most of the divinity students were preparing for careers as ministers in the Universalist faith, a faith known then (as today) for its progressive attitude towards women. So, to the ministers-in-training, inviting women to join their fraternity was a natural practice of what they preached. In the fall of 1892, then, Heth Aleph Res became the first co-ed organization at Tufts College, when Angie M. Brooks and Mrs. Mabel L. MacCoy joined the fraternity. Such a move was soon welcomed by the students, but certainly not replicated – the four national and one local fraternity at Tufts made no effort to admit women themselves.

But Heth Aleph Res wasn’t all that concerned with the other organizations. Rather, the fraternity continued on its trailblazing path. Soon after becoming co-ed, Heth Aleph Res opened up the first ever fraternity chapter house at Tufts College, when the members set up a boarding plan in the house where Miss Brooks and Mrs. MacCoy lived. The other fraternities on campus, recognizing the benefits of such an arrangement, began opening their own chapter houses a semester later. In 1894, Heth Aleph Res convinced the Tufts administration to build them a permanent fraternity house on campus; the structure at 37 Sawyer Avenue in Somerville, MA still stands today. This construction was the first and, to date, only time the college built a house specifically for a fraternity (the rest were built or purchased privately). Unmarried men and women cohabitated in the house, nearly 80 years before dormitories on the campus went co-ed, and for a few months an infant child also lived in the house with his parents. And in 1895, Mrs. MacCoy became the first female minister called to a Universalist church in Massachusetts, when she took over as pastor of First Universalist Parish in Mansfield. Finally, Heth Aleph Res became the first national fraternity founded at Tufts College, as by 1900 it had expanded to at least one other theological school.

Sadly, the tide turned against Heth Aleph Res near the turn of the century, when enrollment at the Tufts Divinity School plummeted. The fraternity gave up its chapter house in 1899, and by 1903 it appears to have dissolved, never to return. The divinity school itself would last until 1968, just one year shy of its 100th anniversary. As for co-ed fraternities, the idea did not catch on again at Tufts until 1974, when the last remaining members of the Gamma Beta chapter of Alpha Tau Omega decided to admit women as equals, thereby becoming the co-ed fraternity ATO of Massachusetts, an organization which is still active on campus today.

 

This photo of the Heth Aleph Re was taken between 1896 and 1897. The young child and mother shown in the photo lived in the fraternity house for about a year. The two women on the far left, it appears, were the cook and housekeeper. There were at least three women living in the house at the time, but unfortunately they do not appear in the photo. The address of this house is 37 Sawyer Avenue, Somerville MA, and is currently used as special interest student housing for aspiring artists – hence its name, the Arts Haus. (Photo from Crane Theological School Photos 1887-1965, UA008/003 Box 10. Tufts University. Digital Collections and Archives. Medford, MA)

Copyright Charlie Trantanella, All Rights Reserved.


 

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The Valentine’s Day Card Connection to Mount Holyoke College

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Esther Howland, an 1847 Mount Holyoke alumna, is credited with popularizing the Valentine’s Day card. Her company, the New England Valentine’s Company, was founded about 50 years before the Hallmark Company, the company most people think of when they think of holiday cards. But it is even a few more years than that as she was making and selling the cards before she officially started the company.

Howland’s father owned a book and stationery shop in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the age of 19, after receiving an English Valentine card, she made some samples of similar cards. Her father, through his store connections, ordered her supplies. Howland’s brother, a salesman for the shop, took them along with him on his visits. Howland had hoped for $200 worth of orders. When her brother returned to Worcester, he had $5,000 worth of orders. Howland enlisted her friends and an assembly line was set up. In 1879, the New England Valentine Company was founded and it relocated to a rented building. While she was not the first to make Valentine’s Day cards in America, her cards were unique.

An Esther Howland card from the collection of Donna Albino.

Howland was known as the “Mother of the American Valentine.” She sold the New England Valentine’s Company to George Whitney in 1881. Howland died in 1904. The Greeting Card Association has awarded an annual Esther Howland Award since 2001.

As my Mount Holyoke College alumna daughter reminded me, in the weeks surrounding Valentine’s Day, Mount Holyoke College honors her contribution to this holiday by creating a display with some of her cards that are in the archives.  https://www.mtholyoke.edu/archives/exhibits/valentines

If you’re interested in Mount Holyoke College ephemera, visit the collection of Donna Albino at  http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~dalbino

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

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Happy Birthday Mizzou! In 1902, There Were Only Two – KKΓ and ΠBΦ

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“Happy Birthday Mizzou! Founded in 1839 as America’s first public university west of the Mississippi,” read the status of one of my Pi Phi friend’s facebook page. How could I not cobble together a quick post from my dissertation, Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities 1867-1902?

It was not until 1871 that women at the University of Missouri, a land-grant institution, were admitted to all classes (Stephens, 1962). But even then, they did not have full use of the library or permission to attend chapel with the men.

The land-grant institutions opened up affordable education for women. These institutions were developing professional programs based upon the emerging technologies (Nevis, 1962). Whereas the first generation of college women at coeducation colleges appear to have studied at small denominational schools and tended to work for a period of time as teachers, the second generation took their place alongside their brothers at the land-grant state supported institutions and many opened their horizons to the spheres of medicine, engineering, and other traditionally male occupations.

When the National Panhellenic Conference was founded in 1902, there were only two women’s fraternities at Mizzou. They were the Monmouth Duo, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, the two organizations founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. When the Theta chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was installed on April 2, 1875, the anti-fraternity sentiment was not as intense as it was five years later. In 1880, action was taken by the faculty to bar students from joining the secret societies, as the fraternities were called.

During the early 1880s, the chapter operated sub-rosa. According to Burton-Roth and Whiting-Westermann (1932): “Invitations were issued only after a thorough and congenial acquaintance had been made with every prospective member. Since the older girls were well known as Kappas before the sub-rosa period, this acquaintance had to be gained gradually and unostentatiously. Accepting a bid in those days involved an element of risk, yet not a single invitation was refused during this entire period and no girl was initiated without the consent of her parents. One member resigned, and was afterward married to a member of the faculty. She now has a Kappa daughter.

“Initiations were carried on in the usual way, never being discovered nor interrupted, although certain sub-rosa girls tell harrowing tales of narrow escapes.” (p. 125) In 1884, the chapter was able to operate in the open again.

Kappa Kappa Gamma’s 1904 Convention

Kappa Kappa Gamma was the only women’s fraternity on the University of Missouri campus until 1888 when Beta Sigma Omicron was founded as a local organization. In 1891, a second chapter was installed at the Synodical College at Fulton, Missouri, making Beta Sigma Omicron a national organization. The Alpha chapter closed in 1892. Beta Sigma Omicron merged with Zeta Tau Alpha in 1964.

In 1899, a local organization, the Iazug Club, was founded at the University of Missouri by seven young women. The Missouri Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi was installed on May 27, 1899. The ceremonies took place at the home of the Belchers, on University Avenue and Hill Street. For $2 a month, the chapter rented a room on 9th Street and Conley Avenue (“Our new chapter,” 1899).

A few of the women who belonged to the two chapters during this came achieved some prominence. A University of Missouri Pi Beta Phi, Gratia E. Woodside, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Missouri in June 1900. At that point, she became the only woman to try a case before that body. In 1903, Woodside opened a private practice in St. Louis and became the only female lawyer in St. Louis and only one of two female lawyers in Missouri (“Some professional Pi Phi women,” 1904).

Helen Guthrie Miller, Kappa Kappa Gamma, was a suffragist. She was a member of the government tuberculosis committee, President of the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association and auditor of the National American Women’s Equal Suffrage Association (Jesse, 1915).

And although I ended this post at 1902, I need to add this interesting snippet. The Alpha Mu chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta was chartered on February 12, 1909, making it the third NPC group on campus. The Alpha Mu chapter and the University share a birthday.

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

Posted in GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Kappa Kappa Gamma, National Panhellenic Conference, Notable Sorority Women, Pi Beta Phi, Sorority History, University of Missouri, Women's Fraternity History, Zeta Tau Alpha | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Happy Birthday Mizzou! In 1902, There Were Only Two – KKΓ and ΠBΦ

Taking the Mystery Out of Fraternity History – AFLV’s Ignite Fraternity

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Spending several days among young fraternity men and women at the Association of Fraternal Leadership & Value’s Central Fraternal Leadership Conference in conjunction with the National Black Greek Leadership Conference offered many opportunities to see the latest “pin attire” up close and personal.  I never tire of seeing fresh faced young men in ties (including bow-ties) and blazers. My feet ached for the young women putting in miles in five and six inch heels.

I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and did a 5-minute, 20 slide Ignite Fraternity presentation on Friday afternoon. Ignite is a “creative process!” and trying to “enlighten, challenge, and entertain” is a mighty big challenge with a glaring countdown clock in your face. The slides were terrific and included info on some of my favorite blog topics – Grace and Calvin Coolidge, the Beekman Tower (Panhellenic), Carrie Chapman Catt, Lloyd G. Balfour and George Banta. As odd as it sounds, my goal was to be a bit like Charlie Brown’s teacher (“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!”) and have the slides ignite the spark of curiosity about our collective history.

Here is the text of my Ignite Fraternity talk:

I was likely the last person that anyone in my high school graduating class would have suspected of joining a sorority in college. When I made my way to Syracuse University, I saw the houses with Greek letters that edged Walnut and I wanted to see what they look liked on the inside. My freshman roommate suggested I sign up for sorority recruitment, go through the house tour round and then drop out. It sounded like a terrific plan. But then something unexpected happened. I found a chapter where I felt very at home; I was offered a bid and became a member.

I will be the first to admit that I was perhaps the most clueless woman who has ever signed up for sorority recruitment. I had no idea about any of it. Remember, I was in it for the house tours. I recall the first time we as new members met with the alumnae advisory committee. They came over for formal dinner. I remember sitting there thinking to myself. “What is it with these women? They’ve been out of college for decades! Don’t they have a life?” Today I am one of those women but back then I did not understand the vital roles that alums can play in chapter life.

During my time in the chapter, I found the collection of my sorority’s magazines dating back to the 1880s when it was first published. I’d pester the President for the key to the archives and I’d sit and read about the history of our organization.

It came to me slowly, but I realized that I was just one tiny little link in a very long chain of women who had taken the same oath of membership. I also started to understand that the women who came before me in the 1800s and early 1900s were pioneers. They were women who went on to earn Ph.D.s, some studying in Europe and writing dissertations in German. Others became doctors, lawyers, educators, and suffragists. They were women who, when World War I broke out, stepped in and did what had to be done. Until 1919, women did not have the right to vote in a federal election and yet the women who belonged to these organizations were mavericks in other ways. Yes, a good many of them went on to be wives and mothers. Juggling a profession and family wasn’t the norm back then. Most had to make a choice between the two.

Each of our organizations is proud of its notable alums. Members can often recite which famous people belonged to their organization. But do any of us know the sum total of the notable people who’ve worn all our badges? Isn’t that something of which every member of any of our organizations should be proud? Or do we just care about our own? The sad fact is that most people who are not familiar with our organizations can’t tell the difference between a Phi or a Psi or a Xi. It is all Greek to them. Being proud of our collective history in no way diminishes the pride we have in our own organizations. We are all in this together.

While it is the externals that set us apart – our badges, colors, symbols, songs and philanthropies to name a few – it is our values and beliefs, those guiding principals that bring us together. Our organizations were started by college students and college students have the future of the organizations in their hands. We need members who understand, respect, and are excited about our organization’s history. If we want to look towards the future we need to have a sense of the past. It is hard to chart a course if you don’t know where you are or where you’ve been.

It’s easy to make history come alive. If your members do not learn the history of your organization and the greater fraternity community while they are collegiate members, it is unlikely that they will ever learn it.

There are so many tools at your disposal. It just takes one interested chapter member to light the spark about fraternity history. And these days it is so easy to find information. Encourage members to use chapter and organizational historical resources. Many fraternity history books that were once out of print are now available as Google books or reprint. Some organizations share history in blogs and twitter pages. Others are digitizing their magazines so even the youngest of chapters can have a full run of the issues. Remember, we all have a history and there is absolutely no reason for it to be a mystery!

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

Posted in GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, National Panhellenic Conference, Notable Sorority Women, Women's Fraternity History | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Taking the Mystery Out of Fraternity History – AFLV’s Ignite Fraternity

Amelia Earhart’s Connection to Thiel College

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

(When I found myself on the Thiel College campus this summer, I thought it a bit odd to be on a road called Amelia Earhart Drive. Would I end up in the middle of nowhere, never to be seen again if I followed it to the end? Turns out there is a real connection to the famous aviatrix!)

Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania is celebrating its Founders’ Day today. Thiel College traces its history to 1866 when five students, three of them women, enrolled in Thiel Hall, an academy located in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1870, it moved to Greenville and became Thiel College.

Thiel College has an interesting connection to Amelia Earhart. Although she briefly attended Columbia University, Earhart did not graduate from college. In 1932, Thiel College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree. It was “the first of two she would accept,” said Thiel College President Dr. Earl S. Rudisill in 1937. The other honorary degree was from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.

In the 1880’s, Earhart’s grandfather, the Reverend David Earhart, helped organize the Pittsburgh Synod which sponsored the college. Earhart’s father, Edwin S. Earhart graduated from Thiel College in 1886.

In 1937, five months after her plane was lost, Thiel College sought to honor her and started a campaign to raise funds. At that time, Dr. Rudisill was quoted in a Pittsburgh newspaper, “Before her last flight, Miss Earhart flew to Cleveland to meet me and expressed a desire…to do something for Thiel College…Apart from her brilliant accomplishments in the science of flight, her devotion to the interest of young womanhood…was a dominant factor of her life.”

There is a road on the Thiel campus named for her and a large photo of her is on display in Thiel’s Langenheim Memorial Library. In 1982, Thiel established an Amelia Earhart Award to honor women of outstanding achievement.

In keeping with the focus of this blog, Thiel College is home to chapters of NPC organizations Alpha Xi Delta, Chi Omega, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Sigma Kappa. The men’s fraternities on campus are Delta Sigma Phi, Kappa Sigma, Phi Theta Phi, and Sigma Phi Epsilon.

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com  2013, All rights reserved.


 

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“Hazing as Girls Practice It” – The University of Chicago’s Esoteric Club, 1896

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“What objection can Miss Talbott (sic) make to a national fraternity in the face of this?” was written on a page that had an undated article entitled “Hazing as Girls Practice it.” It was in with some late 1890s correspondence about a women’s fraternity that was hoping to form a chapter at the University of Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune article read: 

Much curiosity and amusement was caused among University of Chicago students Thursday by the strange actions and curious appearance of Miss Darida (sic) Harper, daughter of President Harper, and her many changes of costume during her promenade on the campus are explained by the fact that she was being initiated into the Esoteric club, a women’s secret society at the university.

The young women took advantage of the high position of the president’s daughter to inflict upon her many new and fiendish barbarities.

In the morning she was compelled to go to her classes a huge market basket, wearing an immense straw hat of the umbrella pattern, gorgeously bedecked with long streamers of green and yellow ribbon. A little later she was seen promenading up and down the campus in the hot sunshine arrayed in fur cap, boa, muff, mittens and ear muffs. Another change followed, and she came out in a calico dress of bright and varied hue. At one time she pushed a little red wheelbarrow containing a diminutive yellow dog and a choice collection of disabled dolls.

Next she tripped across the grassy sward carrying a green lantern in one hand a bird cage in the other, and once she made a flying trip ringing a cow bell and pulling after her a toy wagon filled with bricks.

Dean Marian Talbott (sic) finally interfered and put a stop to the fun. Today Miss Harper is a finished Esoteric and is receiving the congratulations of her friends.”

That same small article was published by the Utica (NY) Morning Herald on April 27, 1896. The Chatham (NY) Courier published a condensed version of the article in its April 29, 1896 issue describing the “grotesque requirements” of the Esoteric. All the articles misspelled the name of Helen Davida Harper [Eaton], the only daughter of William Rainey Harper.

William Rainey Harper graduated from Muskingum College at age 14. He then did postgraduate studies at Yale University. In 1891, when Harper was 35, John D. Rockefeller picked him to help him create the University of Chicago. Rockefeller also selected him to be its first president. Harper also assisted with the creation of Bradley University and served as its first president.

The University of Chicago website describes the Esoteric as a:

student organization that ran from the early 1900s through 1962. It was created for the purpose of advancing social life on campus. Enhancing campus social life was especially important for women in the early years of the University because sororities were not permitted. As a result, women were often active in creating what became known as social clubs, such as the women-only Esoteric.

esoteric

From letters available in the University of Chicago archives, it appears that Dean of Women Marion Talbot did not wish the women’s fraternities/sororities to be a part of campus life. The woman who wrote the note on the above newspaper article was aware of an 1896 effort to install a chapter of Pi Beta Phi on campus. Her note was sent to an officer of that organization. A letter from Katharine L. Sharpe, Grand President of Kappa Kappa Gamma, is also in the University of Chicago archives.

Talbot was a graduate of Boston University and she also had a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Talbot had been a Wellesley College instructor until she resigned to become a part of the University of Chicago when it opened in 1892. Ten years earlier, in 1882, she was a co-founder of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae; in 1921, it joined with the Southern Association of College Women and became the American Association of University Women.

The men’s fraternity system at the University of Chicago pre-dates Rockerfeller’s creation of the University. The Old University of Chicago was founded in 1857 and it failed in 1886. The University of Chicago’s Phi Delta Theta chapter was established at the “First University in 1865 near 35th street (sometimes called ‘The Old University’), and floundered with it.” The Phi Delt chapter was revived in 1897. Chapters of men’s fraternities have existed on the campus throughout the university’s history.

It took nearly a century after the first attempt was made to establish a National Panhellenic Conference organization  on campus. Alpha Omicron Pi chartered a chapter in 1985 and it was followed by a Kappa Alpha Theta chapter the next year. Delta Sigma Theta, a National PanHellenic Conference sorority, established a Chicago chapter in 1947. On April 20, 2013, Pi Beta Phi installed its Illinois Kappa Chapter, culminating an effort that had started more than a century ago.

My thanks to Emily Jones for her help with the archives research and to Christopher Walters for the picture of the Esoteric badge.

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

 
Posted in American Association of University Women, Bradley University, Davida Harper Eaton, Delta Sigma Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), National Panhellenic Conference, Phi Delta Theta, Pi Beta Phi, Sorority History, University of Chicago, Women's Fraternities, Women's Fraternity History | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Hazing as Girls Practice It” – The University of Chicago’s Esoteric Club, 1896

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Settlement House Founder and Kappa Kappa Gamma

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch was a social worker at a time when that discipline was in its infancy. She was also a fraternity woman and played a role in the first gathering of what came to be the National Panhellenic Conference.

In August 1890, the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at Boston University invited representatives from the six other groups that had chapters on campus – Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi – to a meeting planned for April 1891. That meeting was called to order by Mary M. Kingsbury [Simkhovitch], Kappa Kappa Gamma and Chairman of the Executive Committee on Convention. Although the National Panhellenic Conference was not founded until 1902, this meeting in Boston was the first attempt at getting together the women’s organizations.

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch

She also served as her chapter’s delegate to convention. Decades later she reflected on that trip, “I was lucky enough in my junior year to be a delegate to a convention in Minneapolis. This allowed me to stop at Akron and Wooster and other places where we had chapters. The difference of attitude and emphasis in all these places helped me to modify my New England provincialism.”

As a collegian, she and Margaret B. Dodge created a Kappa Kappa Gamma Kalendar for 1889. An announcement in the 1889 Delta Upsilon Quarterly touted it as:

a new idea in fraternity publications. It consists of twelve pages, about six inches by nine in size, and is handsomely printed on fine heavy paper. A page is given to the calendar for each month, historical points of Kappa Kappa Gamma are named, and opposite each day is a quotation garnered from eminent authors, fraternity magazines and other sources.

In 1890, she graduated from Boston University where she was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She served Kappa Kappa Gamma as the Editor of Volume VI of the Key of Kappa Kappa Gamma and was Kappa’s first Historian.

In her autobiography, Simkhovitch wrote of her time as a collegiate member of Kappa Kappa Gamma:

There was the ambition inculcated into new members to make a success of themselves in any field of college life. Loafing was discouraged and there was a healthy competition to see which fraternity could secure the greatest number of honors. This may not have been the highest motive for work, but we all enjoy the warmth of fellowship and group approbation and undoubtedly standards were maintained under this stimulus that might otherwise have slipped. ‘Kappa’ honor, skill and reputation were all cherished.

After graduate work at Radcliffe College and Columbia University, she  traveled to Berlin to study. There she met a Russian student, Vladmir Simkhovitch, whom she later married. She worked at the College Settlement House and the Friendly Aid House that was supported by All Souls Unitarian Church.

In 1902, she founded and served as Director of the non-sectarian Greenwich House Settlement in New York City. It opened at 26 Jones Street on Thanksgiving Day. The goal of the settlement house was to help immigrants adjust to their lives in their new country. Classes in music, art and drama were added. In 1919, a nursery school was established.

The New York City Panhellenic was formed in October 1920. At a luncheon meeting in April, 1921 at the Hotel Astor, the program centered on the history of the Panhellenic movement. According to a fraternity magazine’s account of the meeting, “Quite by chance it happened that Mrs. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch of [Kappa Kappa Gamma’s] Phi chapter, who was the principal officer of the first Panhellenic Conference in Boston, was present at the first meeting of the National Panhellenic.”

Simkhovitch had a hand in many of the great social reforms of the day. She was a member of the American Association of Social Workers and was awarded honorary degrees from Boston University, New York University, Columbia University, Smith College and Colby College. She retired from Greenwich House on February 1, 1946 and became its Director Emeritus. Simkhovitch died in 1951.

Today, the Greenwich House offers programs in social services including counseling, drug treatment, senior health and AIDS mental health counseling. The cultural arts education programming that began more than 100 years ago continues still.

© Fran Becque  www.fraternityhistory.com   All rights reserved.


 

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“War Work” by NPC Groups During World War I

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

World War I opened the doors to greater philanthropic efforts by the NPC groups. The war began in 1914 and although America did not enter it until 1917, the NPC magazines of that era tell about the hasty departures of members who were traveling or studying in Europe when the war started. There are also stories from members, including Zeta Tau Alpha’s Grand President, Dr. May Agness Hopkins, who went abroad to be of service in any way they could – as nurses, canteen workers, phone operators, and even at least one surgeon, Kappa Kappa Gamma Dr. Mary Crawford.

What follows below is a post I wrote for the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. The work that Foundation and the Panhellenic Council which support it are doing is much like the “War Work” done by the NPC groups in the 1920s. 

Philanthropy has long been a part of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations. Prior to 1910, chapters and alumnae clubs often adopted projects on a local level. Purchasing coal for a family in need, endowing a room in a hospital, supplying milk for a free milk station, and helping to establish a community library are just a few examples of work done by sorority women in the 1800s and early 1900s.

By 1914, a few national philanthropic efforts had begun; these included Alpha Chi Omega’s Star Studio at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH, and Pi Beta Phi’s Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In addition, loan funds and scholarship programs were being created by the organizations.

World War I opened the doors to greater philanthropic efforts by the NPC groups. The war began in 1914 and although America did not enter it until 1917, the NPC magazines of that era tell about the hasty departures of members who were traveling or studying in Europe when the war started. There are also stories from members, including Zeta Tau Alpha’s Grand President, Dr. May Agness Hopkins, who went abroad to be of service in any way they could – as nurses, canteen workers, phone operators, and even at least one surgeon, Kappa Kappa Gamma Dr. Mary Crawford.

Mildred Bates Smith, a Boston University Pi Beta Phi alumna. She, along with her husband, joined in the Salvation Army. It was the only possible way that they could serve together overseas.

Mildred Bates Smith, a Boston University Pi Beta Phi alumna. She, along with her husband, joined in the Salvation Army. It was the only possible way that they could serve together overseas.

The NPC women who stayed on North American soil mobilized and took part in efforts to help those affected by the war. In chapter houses and at alumnae club meetings, members began war work in earnest. They knitted items, collected scrap metal, and purchased Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps.

Kappa Alpha Thetas who were representatives of the Committee for Devastated France helped start schools for French children and cared for orphans. Noted author Dorothy Canfield Fisher, a Kappa Kappa Gamma, led reconstruction efforts in Bellevue-Meudon, France. She enlisted her Kappa sisters for support, inviting them to become “Aunties of Bellevue-Meudon” by sending clothes and money to help the children.

Several groups, including Alpha Gamma Delta and Sigma Kappa, supported the American Red Cross. Kappa Alpha Theta gave $3,800 (more than $88,000 in 2013 funds) to equip the nurses of one base hospital. Phi Mu established a nurses’ hut at another base hospital; there a Phi Mu served as hostess. Gamma Phi Beta funded the needs of Belgian children as did Delta Gamma. Gamma Phi Beta’s fundraising efforts took place in theater lobbies where they set up a milk bottle campaign to collect change.

milk bottle

It is a picture of Gamma Phi Beta’s milk bottle fundraising campaign. Many of the NPC groups’ World War I relief fundraising efforts were member centered. This effort by Gamma Phi took place in theater lobbies where the general public could contribute.

Chi Omega supported two workers in the devastated areas of France and contributed to the YWCA’s Overseas Service. Alpha Omicron Pi gave funds for relief work in France’s Chateau-Thierry district while Alpha Chi Omega donated funds to help three French villages.

Two groups set up rooms for French female industrial workers. Alpha Phi maintained one in Roanne for the women who worked in the munitions factories. Delta Delta Delta helped support one in Tours.

European war orphans were “adopted” by many organizations including Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Omicron Pi, Gamma Phi Beta, and Delta Zeta. It was not a physical adoption, but a monetary one, with funds being sent to an overseas organization to be used for the care of the children. Each Sigma Kappa chapter adopted an orphan. Almost every Alpha Delta Pi chapter and alumnae club adopted an Armenian orphan. In 1918-19, Alpha Chi Omega adopted 67 French orphans.

Some groups assisted foreign students. Pi Beta Phi helped six French girls who were studying in Minnesota colleges and a Serbian girl who studied at Westhampton College. They were provided with funds to be used for books, warm clothes and travel. Delta Gamma helped educate an Armenian girl.

The work done during World War I gave the NPC organizations a good foundation for increased philanthropic efforts. In the 1921 Story of Gamma Phi Beta, Lindsey Barbee made an interesting observation. Although she was speaking of Gamma Phi Beta’s efforts, the sentiments can be transferred to the other NPC groups. She wrote, “The war work taught the sorority not only the beauty of service but the splendid possibilities of concerted action. From coast to coast, Gamma Phis met the national crisis with courage, with efficiency and with timeless endeavor; and thereby they experienced the happiness of making a real effort and a real sacrifice and the inward contentment which comes from filling a need, from relieving suffering and from being a vital part in the world struggle.”

 

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