Theta Phi Alpha Founded on August 30, 1912

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Theta Phi Alpha was founded on August 30, 1912, at the University of Michigan.

The Founders of Theta Phi Alpha

In the early 1900s, Catholics were not always accepted in the other fraternal organizations. Theta Phi Alpha’s roots can be traced to the 1909 establishment of a local organization, Omega Upsilon, at the University of Michigan. Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the student chapel at Michigan, felt that there should be an organization that could provide the Catholic women at Michigan with an environment that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” This was in a time and place when Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus. Interestingly, Theta Phi Alpha birthplace was a state institution that was co-founded by a Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Richard.

I came across this article in the October 1952 issue of The Fraternity Month. That summer, at the Theta Phi Alpha convention at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Pi Lambda Sigma, another Catholic sorority, merged with Theta Phi Alpha.

Pi Lambda Sigma was founded at Boston University on June 24, 1921. Delta Delta Delta founder (Sarah) Ida Shaw Martin with support from the Chancellery Office in Boston and the approval of Boston’s Archbishop O’Connell helped create the sorority. Theta Phi Alpha’s Eta chapter was founded at Boston University in 1921 and the two Catholic sororities were rivals on the campus.

Pi Lambda Sigma’s purpose was “to stimulate the social, intellectual, ethical and spiritual life of its members; and to count as a world force through services rendered to others.” In 1927, a second chapter was established at Boston University’s School of Education. Additional chapters were chartered at Temple University, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, University of Cincinnati, Quincy University, and Creighton University. Pi Lambda Sigma never attained membership in the National Panhellenic Conference.

In the early 1950s, it became evident to the Pi Lambda Sigma governing council and active members that the existence of the organization was tenuous. Ruth Thompson, a Pi Lambda Sigma, is quoted in the Living Our History Centennial History of Theta Phi Alpha:

Pi Lambda Sigma was faced with several alternatives: a.) merger; b.) dissolution with assets set up in scholarship funds; and c.) each collegiate chapter would make its own decision whether to merge, go local, etc. The final vote was for the merger. I visited the Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati and asked for advice. The administration was in favor of the merger and was helpful. We checked all NPC groups and sent questionnaires to four sororities. We received two responses besides Theta Phi’s. It took two years to finalize our merger with Theta Phi Alpha. The decision was made because the ideals of both sororities were similar and we hoped that together we would become strong.

The Pi Lambda Sigmas met in convention in May 1952 in Boston. A merger with Theta Phi Alpha was approved. When the Theta Phi Alpha convention convened in Chicago in late June the merger was ratified. There, Alison Hume Lotter, National President of Pi Lambda Sigma, was initiated into Theta Phi Alpha.

At the time of the merger only four of Pi Lambda Sigma’s chapters were active. The chapters at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati combined under Theta Phi Alpha’s letters. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all religions.

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OTD – A Phi Gam and His Pi Phi Wife Become President and First Lady

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On August 3, 1923, Americans were waking to the news that Warren Harding had died suddenly, late in the evening on August 2, after he became ill in a San Francisco hotel. The Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, and his wife Grace, were visiting the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the Vice-President’s father, John, lived.

For about fours hours, the country was without a President, as it took that long for the news to travel from the west coast, where Harding died, to the hills of the small New England town where the Coolidges were staying.  

Colonel John Coolidge’s home did not have a telephone. President Harding’s secretary telegraphed the initial message of Harding’s death to White River Junction, Vermont. The public telephone operator who received the message sought out Coolidge’s stenographer, W. A. Perkins, and Joseph N. McInerney, his chauffeur. They alerted a reporter. Much activity ensued in a short amount of time. They went to the Coolidge homestead at about 2:30 a.m. and knocked. Colonel Coolidge answered the door and received the news. He trudged up the stairs to wake his son.  The President recounted the night in his autobiography:

I noticed that his voice trembled. As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.

He placed in my hands an official report and told me that President Harding had just passed away. My wife and I at once dressed.

Before leaving the room I knelt down and, with the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.

The Coolidge family - Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.'s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Coolidge family – Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.’s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Grace Coolidge went downstairs to join her husband in the parlor. A Bible belonging to Calvin Coolidge’s mother, who died when he was young, was on the table. As her father-in-law, a Windsor County notary, administered the oath of office to her husband by the light of a kerosene lamp in the small (14′ x 17′) parlor, she became the First Lady of the United States. 

First-hand accounts vary as to the people in the room when the oath was administered. That is understandable given the haste of the activity, the darkness of the night, and the solemness of the occasion.

On that night, Grace Coolidge, a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont, and Calvin Coolidge, a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Chapter at Amherst College, became the first President and  First Lady to have been initiated into Greek-letter societies as college students.

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta's Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto's painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library. It is "life size."

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta’s Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto’s painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library.

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait. In it, she is wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow. The portrait was given to the United States by Pi Beta Phi.

If you’re ever near Plymouth Notch, Vermont, you can stop by and see the room where Grace Coolidge became First Lady by the light of a kerosene lamp.

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The 21st Century Edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

William Raimond Baird published the first edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities in 1879. After Baird’s death, others took on the job of editing Baird’s Manual. The twentieth and last edition, edited by Jack Anson, Phi Kappa Tau, and Robert F. Marchesani, Jr., Phi Kappa Psi, was published in 1991. It’s a very large book (8.5 x 11 x 2.5) and if another edition were to be published, it would likely have to be twice the size, what with the changes that have taken place in ensuing three decades. Moreover, it would be outdated before publication.

Carroll Lurding, Delta Upsilon, made his hobby the study of fraternities and sororities. For decades he painstakingly researched the local groups which became national organizations. He kept track of the changes that have happened in the fraternity and sorority world since the last edition of Baird’s was published in 1991. Lurding combed fraternities and sororities publications including histories, pledge manuals, magazines, and websites as well as available yearbooks. He also consulted the publications available at the University of Illinois Library’s Student Life & Culture Archives,  Indiana University’s Lurding Collection of Fraternity Material at the Lilly Library and the New York Public Library’s Baird Collection. He expanded on information offered, including the names of local organizations which became chapters of fraternities and sororities.

The Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities picks up where that 20th Edition of Baird’s Manual ended. And it includes much more! I hope you will take a look at it and use it regularly.

This from the “How to Use” section offers an overview of the Almanac as well as a listing of all the institutions where there is or once was a fraternity and sorority system:

This Almanac contains several sections. There are introductory files with the evolution of the fraternity and sorority system, founding dates, chronology, a list of the founding institutions, and largest organizations by decade. The organizational listing is divided into three sections –Men’s, Women’s, and Co-ed, for organizations with more than three chapters. In each section, there is a listing of the manner in which an organization evolved. Information includes the name of a local if that is how it was founded, when it became a part of the organization and the chapter identifier, as well as any time the chapter may have been inactive. There is also a section dedicated to organizations which are no longer active.

The institutional listing encompasses more than 1,000 North American higher education institutions, listed below for easy of finding in each pdf file. It includes information about the institution’s founding, the status of housing for fraternal organizations and the chronology of the chapters. The men’s groups are listed first, followed by the women’s groups and then the co-ed organizations. Organizations that are in bold-face type are currently active on campus. There is also a section for more than 100 institutions which no longer exist.

Please help publicize this important resource. I just finished the latest updates. There is also a mechanism to send updates if you find any errors.

 

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To the Moon and Back

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.
On this day in 1969, three men, the crew of Apollo 11, had just blasted off from the Florida coast and into the great beyond. Despite internet reports to the contrary of the three men aboard Apollo 11, only one was a fraternity man. Michael Collins and  Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., were West Point graduates. Aldrin was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. Neil A. Armstrong was a fraternity man, an initiate of the Phi Delta Theta chapter at Purdue University. Armstrong’s Phi Delt badge is the first fraternity badge to have been to the moon. He was the first man to walk on the moon. Upon his return to Earth, he presented the badge to Phi Delta Theta and it is on display at the fraternity’s headquarters in Oxford. However, contrary to rumor, he never pinned it on the American flag on the moon, nor did he pin his wife’s Alpha Chi Omega badge to the American flag. This post from Phi Delta Theta is several years old, but you all can do the math.

A P.E.O. Connection

Aldrin carried with him a P.E.O. Centennial Charm in loving memory of his grandmother, Jessie Ross Moon. She was a member of the first Florida chapter of P.E.O., Chapter A, in Miami, as was his aunt, Madeline Moon Sternberg. His aunt and her chapter presented the charm to P.E.O. at the dedication of the P.E.O. Centennial Center on Sept. 29, 1969 during P.E.O.’s Centennial festivities.
The P.E.O. Centennial charm is at the top of the plaque in the center of the circle.
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Skiouros the Alpha Gam Squirrel on Squirrel Appreciation Day, January 21

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University on May 30, 1904 at the home of Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, a Syracuse University professor. By 1901, all seven of the founding National Panhellenic Conference organizations had chapters at Syracuse. Coddington, who had a hand in the early years of Alpha Phi, realized that the campus needed another women’s fraternity. He approached several young female students and discussions ensued. Though excitement started to grow, the women managed to keep the possibility of another organization on campus very quiet. Edith MacConnell was recovering from a serious accident and was a patient at the Homeopathic Hospital. Not even the nurses attending to her had any idea what was taking place, despite the steady stream of visitors to her room.

The announcement in the Daily Orange, the school’s newspaper, noted:

A new Greek-letter fraternity has been organized among the women of the university. The name is Alpha Gamma Delta and the members thus far are: Marguerite Shepard, ’05; Jennie C. Titus, ’05; Georgia Otis, ’06; Ethel E. Brown, ’06; Flora M. Knight, ’06, Estelle Shepard, ’06; Emily H. Butterfield, ’07; Edith MacConnell, ’07; Grace R. Mosher, ’07; Mary L. Snider, ’07.

During Alpha Gamma Delta’s first year, the chapter met in a third floor room of a home at 1005 East Genesee Street. The chapter’s first house was located at 761 Irving Avenue. On April 30, 1907, it was the site of the first Alpha Gamma Delta convention. Delegates from the Beta Chapter at the University of Wisconsin and the Gamma Chapter at Wesleyan College in Connecticut were in attendance, along with several Alpha Chapter representatives.

According to Alpha Gam history aficionado Dr. Ellen Wenzel, the squirrel was first used as Gamma Chapter’s mascot. It was adopted as Alpha Gam’s mascot at the 1909 convention in Athens, Ohio. The Gamma Chapter closed when coeducation was banned at Wesleyan University, but Skiouros the squirrel lives on. (Skiouros is the Greek word meaning squirrel.)

I’ve written about Emily H. Butterfield in other posts. She was an architect and designed the Alpha Chapter house, among others. Her best known sketches are the ones she did of Alpha Gamma Delta’s mascot. She was quite fond of him and  when she was editor of The Quarterly, her drawings of him would appear often.  By mid-century, some chapters weren’t cognizant of Skiouros’ existence.

From the 1972 convention. It is the first squirrel in Nann Blaine Hilyard’s collection.

From the Nann Blaine Hilyard Skiouros collection

Attendees at the 1972 convention received a small brass squirrel from Grand President Lorna Wilson Brigden. She hoped that the gift would spark the interest of Alpha Gams and bring its mascot to the forefront.

A needlepoint pattern of Skiouros was also distributed at the convention. The needlepoint pillow was designed by Jo Ippolito Christensen, member of Alpha Xi chapter (Maryland). She wrote several needlepoint design books.

This effort seems to have been the spark for a Skiouros revival.

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Two Planes Over the Grand Canyon in the Summer of 1956

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Pi Beta Phi’s 40th Biennial Convention at the Huntington Sheraton Hotel in Pasadena, California, was the largest one to that date; it took place from June 24-30, 1956. The final banquet was held on Friday evening. Afterwards, many attendees began preparing to return home since some had early flights on Saturday morning.

Janice Hass, Missouri Gamma, was president of her chapter at Drury College. She lived in Springfield, Missouri, where Drury is located. Marie Wilson Klemp, a Colorado Alpha – University of Colorado, the mother of a young child, was serving as President of the Kansas City, Missouri, Alumnae Club. Lois Klein Brock, Colorado Beta – University of Denver, was the delegate for the Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia Alumnae Club. She lived in Falls Church, Virginia. The three boarded a TWA flight for Kansas City. Sally Laughlin, Pennsylvania Epsilon, served as the Penn State chapter’s delegate. She was from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. She boarded a United flight to Chicago. None of the four would make it home.

Lois F. Klein Brock

The two planes, a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation, took off from Los Angeles within minutes of each other on June 30, 1956. The TWA pilot requested to fly above the clouds and the planes were cruising at the same altitude — 21,000 feet. At about 10 a.m., each pilot reported that they would be crossing over the Grand Canyon at the same position at 10:31 a.m. Unfortunately, they did not report this fact to the same station, so that the pilots were not made aware of each other’s presence.

The planes crashed over the Grand Canyon that morning. All 128 people, the total of passengers and crew on both planes, were killed. At the time, it held the distinction of being the deadliest American plane crash. More importantly, it led to the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernize air traffic control so that accidents of that type could be prevented.

In 2014, a plaque was dedicated at the overlook above the Grand Canyon accident site making the crash site a national historic landmark. The marker reads: “This tragic site represents a watershed moment in the modernization of America’s airways, leading to the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration and national standards for aviation safety.”

On July 5, Pi Beta Phi Grand President Marianne Reid Wild sent a letter to officers, chapters and alumnae clubs telling them of the tragic loss of the four Pi Phis. She asked that each chapter/club’s membership be notified. Her instructions continued, “In loving memory of those whom many Pi Phis had come to know during the Convention, Pi Beta Phi declares a period of official mourning from July 15th to July 25th. In accordance with the Chapter Manual a small strip of black ribbon will be worn under the badge for that period in remembrance.”

Pennsylvania Epsilon’s chapter letter in the Spring 1956 Arrow noted that Sally Laughlin had been elected to Pi Gamma Alpha Fine Arts Honorary. In the Chapter Reports section of the Winter 1956 Arrow, Missouri Gamma reported, “A scholarship fund which is to be made available to any Drury girl, has been established under the auspices of Pi Beta Phi in memory of Janice Traer Haas, Missouri Gamma president.”

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Delta Pi!

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On May 15, 1851, Alpha Delta Pi was founded as the Adelphean Society at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia by six young women. The founders are Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, Ella Pierce Turner, Octavia Andrew Rush, Mary Evans Glass, Sophronia Woodruff Dews, and Elizabeth Williams Mitchell.  Fitzgerald, known to generations of Alpha Delta Pis as “Mother Fitzgerald,” was the leader and first president of the Adelpheans.

In 1905, the Society changed its name to Alpha Delta Phi and installed its second chapter at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A year later, a third chapter was founded at Mary Baldwin Seminary, in Staunton, Virginia. Alpha Delta Phi joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) in 1909. The installation of the Sigma Chapter at the University of Illinois in 1912 came shortly after the installation, on the same campus, of the Illinois Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, a men’s fraternity founded in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.  The Illinois members made their organization aware of this duplication of name and the problems that surfaced because of it. In 1913, the convention body voted to change the name to Alpha Delta Pi.

In 1926, a bench was dedicated on the Wesleyan College campus. It was given in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Adelphean Society. The bench was designed by Emily Langham of the Sophie Newcomb College chapter. The event was chronicled in the 1930 History of Alpha Delta Pi. “We have just had a big thrill way down in Dixie. When one attends a family reunion, there is always a feeling of both pleasure and pain, so many recollections are aroused. As the large number of Alpha alumnae gathered together for the presentation of the Marble Bench by Alpha Delta Pi to Wesleyan College, commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, they felt they were returning to an old home, the mother gone, but her children ‘rising up to call her blessed.’ Every loyal heart there felt with keenest appreciation the placing of this Memorial at the home of Alpha Chapter.”

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Dedication of Founders Bench

Dedication of the Memorial Bench

The bench was placed in “a grove of great oaks. Waving mimosa trees in full bloom and magnolias added the floral decoration.” Ella Clark Anderson, the oldest member present, was a member of the class of 1862. Descendants of the founders were present when the blue and white drapery was drawn aside and the bench was unveiled. Ten years later, Alpha Delta Pi once again gathered on campus to dedicate another gift to the college. The Alpha Delta Pi’s Memorial Fountain is located in the center of Wesleyan College’s quadrangle; it was a gift to celebrate the college’s centennial in 1936. Made of Georgia marble, the Alpha Delta Pi coat-of-arms is engraved on the large slanting block at center. The names of the founders of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority are engraved on the stairs leading up to the fountain. Other elements of the fountain were added on other commemorations including two lions, the mascot of Alpha Delta Pi, given in 2011 to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary.

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Dancing the Night Away!

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This post is by Mike Raymond, Lambda Chi Alpha, Miami University (Ohio), Class of 1967. Thank you, Mike!

Dance cards are a lost part of Greek Life history. At one time they were prominent parts of balls and dances on campus across America. They first appeared in Europe in the early 1800s but quickly made their way to America around the time of the American Civil War. Most people, aside from watching Bridgerton on Netflix, have never seen a dance card or know its purpose.

The cards were a fixture at college and Greek Letter Society organization dances from about the end of World War I to the late 1960s. Dance cards could be found throughout society from community groups, like the Masons, to high school proms, to the ‘country club” set. A young woman displayed her dance card on her left arm, dangling from a colorful cord and sporting a pencil to write down the names of her dance partners.

Companies like Balfour, Auld, Brochon, E. Kilburn, and Burr-Patterson made the design and sale of dance cards a large portion of their business as they marketed their products to fraternity men. I can remember back in 1966 when a number of salesmen solicited my fraternity for dance cards. Later as a teacher, the high school proms all sported dance cards into the late 1970s.

WHAT IS A DANCE CARD?

So, just what is a dance card? The cards come in many guises. Originally, it was an actual card printed on both sides with a list of dances. As time passed, it took the form of a small booklet, stapled or held together by a cord or string with an attached pencil. The card itself named the dance theme, had a list of dances, the orchestra playing, and the people who organized or sponsored the event. The variations in themes, colors, shape, materials, are endless. There were homemade cards as well as the professionally designed and manufactured dance cards.

The dance card served at least three purposes: it provided an easy introduction for potential dance partners to meet each other, it helped to track the evening’s dances, and it later served as a memento or keepsake from the event. Expressions like, “My dance card is filled,” originated from the use of the dance card. Old scrapbooks abound on the internet that are filled with dance cards from hundreds of colleges in the first two-thirds of the 20th century.

NOVELTY DANCE CARDS

It is amazing how creative people could be when designing dance cards. These novelty dance cards became very popular after World War II and continued to the 1960s. Three of these cards are presented in this article. They include a Beta Theta Pi “Kid Party” with an old-fashioned baby bottle as the cover of the card. The dance was held in honor of their pledge class. It features dances with titles like “I Needs Change” and “Feeding Time.” The Beta Pledge Class was identified by name with the caption “Our Pride and Joy.”

 

The Phi Delta Theta card is one of my favorites because it is a jab at the old-fashion formal dances held prior to World War II. Back in the Roaring Twenties a formal dance meant top hat and tails. A semi-formal required a tuxedo and a casual dance attire was a suit. Women dressed accordingly to that of the man. As can be imaged not many people could afford to attend a formal dance with an admission price of $3.00. For example, in 1925 the average American worker made $38.00 for a fifty-hour work week! So, a” Half-Formal” dance made complete sense to a fraternity that was composed primarily of veterans attending college on the G.I Bill.

In 1948, Sigma Phi Epsilon put on their annual “Bowery Ball.” The card had “swinging doors” that open into the contents of the dance card. The chaperones were called constables and the housemother was called warden. A kind of mixed message but still fun.

GREEK ORGANIZATION DANCE CARDS

In 1929, Delta Eta of Kappa Sigma held their Pledge Dance and had a very nice dance card made for the occasion. The card is patterned after the KS pledge pin. It is extremely well preserved with its small red pencil attached. An attached pencil is an unusual find because most pencils were removed to put into a scrapbook or discarded.

The New York Epsilon Chapter of Phi Delta Theta held their Pledge Dance for the class of 1936. The dance card has a cut out on the cover with an embossed pledge pin on blue sparkling paper. This dance was held in the Chapter House with music provided by the Vagabonds.” As typical of dance cards the planning committee members and chaperones were listed. The cord is in the color scheme of the fraternity.

Sigma Chi’s Gamma Delta Chapter chimed in with its Annual Pledge Dance held in the “Old Gym” in 1948. Music was provided by a campus band named the Varsitonians. This dance card has a clear plastic cover and has its pencil neatly attached by a silver string. Both the names of the Active and Pledges were listed in the booklet.

The Interfraternity Council also sponsored dances. These dances afford an opportunity to socialize with members of other fraternity and sorority students. The Interfraternity Council of Oklahoma A. and M. College (now  Oklahoma State University) held their Ribbon Dance in 1948. The cover features an embossed array of the Greek letters of the IFC member organizations The dance card listed the Social Committee, Chaperons, honored guests and it indicated that music was provided by the Varsity Crew. What is a “ribbon dance?” It is hard to be certain, but it may be named after an old tradition of wearing colored ribbons along with the fraternity or sorority badge. This is the kind of question that a dance card can stimulate upon closely examining it.

PERSONALIZED DANCE CARDS

Many of the cards are personalized with the name of the woman, her dance partners, and even sentimental notes.

One such card came from the Annual Spring Formal which was held by the Epsilon Chi Chapter of Phi Chi fraternity in 1937. It features a velvet cover with an embossed image of their coat of arms. In addition to the common elements of a dance card, such as a list of dances, it also lists the menu for the evening. A very nice meal at that! However, there are two things about this dance card that separates the card from the others. The names of the two partners are hand written on the cover along with a drawing of entwined hearts and cupid’s arrow! There is also a handwritten inscription on the Menu page that is rather cryptic: “No Eat- Sit Down Strike.” Just another example of how intriguing dance cards can be upon examination.

Stories were told by the dance cards such as a series of five dance cards that were found a few years ago that had two cards from the usual dances back in 1938-39. However, the cards changed to Pershing Rifle and ROTC dances by 1941. The same couple danced with notes of affection and love on the cards. All dances reserved for her companion. She saved these dance cards until her death. One wonders what happened to the couple? Did he survive combat, did they reunite, and marry? That is an example of how meaningful something as simple as a dance card can be.

CONCLUSION

Dance cards reflected the times when they were created. They say a lot about the changing nature of society in general and fraternities and sororities in particular. They were made to commemorate many celebrations and special events. During their nearly seven decades of popularity the cards documented the changes in the social norms of fraternities and sororities. From expensive and formal balls to inexpensive and casual dances the dance cards were there to help document this lost tradition of providing a dance card to a potential partner

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The Coolidges on Phi Gamma Delta’s Founders’ Day

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On May 1, 1848, Phi Gamma Delta was founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The founders, the Immortal Six, are John Templeton McCarty, Samuel Beatty Wilson, James Elliott, Daniel Webster Crofts, Ellis Bailey Gregg and Naaman Fletcher. The Beta Chapter was established the same year at Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania. The chapters became one when the colleges merged to form Washington and Jefferson College in 1865.

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta’s Headquarters, it was originally commissioned by the Xi Graduate Chapter for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto’s painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library. It is “life size.”

And although this is Fiji Founders’ Day, this post is really about the President and his lovely wife. In the summer of 1920, an Amherst Fiji won the Vice Presidential spot on the Republican ticket. At the time of the nomination, Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge was at Amherst attending his 25th college reunion and the 99th anniversary of the college. A reception at the chapter house was arranged with his wife Grace Goodhue Coolidge, a Pi Beta Phi alumna, helping the chapter quickly plan the event. More than 1,500 people attended the hastily planned reception.

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait given to the Nation in 1924 by Pi Beta Phi. Her golden arrow is worn over her heart.

Calvin Coolidge became President after the death of Warren G. Harding on August 2, 1923. The Coolidges were planning  to attend Phi Gamma Delta’s 75th anniversary celebration in Pittsburgh in September 1923. Unfortunately, they had to cancel those plans. Later, the fraternity presented a founder’s badge to the President. On that occasion, President Coolidge said, “I am very glad to have this badge. My wife wears mine most of the time.”

On November 17, 1924, the Coolidges’ son, John, a student at Amherst College, became a member of his father’s chapter. On the following Founders’ Day, May 1, 1925, Fiji Sires and Sons was organized. Its purpose is to “impress upon all fathers and sons, who are members of the fraternity, and in time upon their sons, a realization of the noble trinity of principles of the fraternity, with the hope that they may outrun the fervor of youth.”

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Happy Founders’ Day, Theta Phi Alpha!

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On August 30, 1912, Theta Phi Alpha was founded at the University of Michigan. Although founded on August 30, Theta Phi Alpha celebrates Founders’ Day on April 30, the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena.* St. Catherine is the patroness of the organization and her motto, “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring, ” is Theta Phi Alpha’s motto as well.

At that time Theta Phi Alpha was founded, Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus. Moreover, the University of Michigan is likely the only state university which can count a Catholic priest among its founders. In 1817, Father Gabriel Richard was a co-founder of the Catholepistemiad of Michigania which later became known as the University of Michigan. (The University celebrated its 200 birthday a few days ago!) He served as its Vice-President from 1817-21. In 1821 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees and served until his death in 1832. So, it is therefore interesting to note the Catholic connection between the Catholic sorority and the state university founded by a Catholic priest.  When Theta Phi Alpha was founded, the Catholic hierarchy was of the belief that Catholic women should be attending Catholic colleges and universities. Giving Catholic women the opportunity to join a Catholic sorority could provide an opportunity to keep them close to their Catholic roots at a secular institution.

In 1909, Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the university’s student chapel organized Omega Upsilon. He believed that the Catholic women at the university should have the opportunity to belong to an organization  that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.”

After Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling.  There were no alumnae to guide the organization. Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive even though he was not on campus. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization, Theta Phi Alpha.

The Founders of Theta Phi Alpha

There are two sets of sisters among the Theta Phi Alpha founders, the Ryans and the Caugheys. The founders are Amelia McSweeney, Mildred M. Connely, May C. Ryan, Selma Gilday, Camilla Ryan Sutherland, Helen Ryan Quinlan, Katrina Caughey Ward, Dorothy Caughey Phalan, Otilia Leuchtweis O’Hara, and Eva Stroh Bauer Everson.  Seven of them were Omega Upsilon alumnae and two were undergraduate members of Omega Upsilon.

 

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