Francis and Grace Lass Sisson – Grand Presidents Who Lived in a Castle

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Knox College graduates Grace Lass, a member of the Illinois Delta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi, and Francis Hinckley Sisson, a member of the Xi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi, were married in Galesburg, Illinois, on June 16, 1897.

Grace Lass Sisson

At the time of their marriage, Mr. Sisson, who had done post-graduate work at Harvard University,  was the Editor of the Galesburg Daily Mail. In 1903, they moved to New York City, where he took a job with McClure’s Magazine. A year later, he became Advertising Manager for the American Real Estate Company and took over as its Secretary from 1908-14. He then took a job with the H.E. Lesan Advertising Agency. From there he became the Assistant Chairman of the Railways Executive’s Advisory Association. In 1917, he was employed as the Vice President of the Guaranty Trust Company. He was still with the company when he passed away in 1933. In addition, he served as President of the American Bankers Association

Mrs. Sisson served as Grand President of Pi Beta Phi from 1895-99 and Mr. Sisson was President of Beta Theta Pi from 1912-18.

When the Sissons moved to New York City, they lived in several homes. The 1906 Pi Beta Phi Directory lists the Sissons at 839 West End Avenue. In 1917, their address was 70 Undercliff in the Park Hill section of Yonkers. The 1931 Westchester City Social Record lists the Sissons as still living at the 70 Undercliff address with a winter residence of 480 Park Avenue. In the 1936 Pi Beta Phi Directory, the Sissons were living at 170 Shonnard Terrace in Yonkers.

The Sissons called the home at 170 Shonnard Terrace “Chateau Fleur de Lys,” the name given to it by Dr. H. deB. Seebold of New Orleans who built it in 1890. The Gothic Renaissance chateau was designed by Seebold and he spent 20 years collecting old world treasures to use in it.

The gray stone home was said to be only one of four French chateaus on the Hudson River. An article about a bridge event that Mrs. Sisson hosted for the Charity Organization Society in the early 1930s, described the home’s interior: 

Through this foyer one reaches the beautifully proportioned Robin Hood room in which the bridge will be held. The handsome, carved oak ceiling, from which the room derives its name, came originally from the Earl of Nottingham’s manor house and is made from black oaks which grew in Sherwood Forest.

Here also are the huge windows, reaching from floor to ceiling, brought from a French chateau. Of leaded opaque stained glass, with a pattern of rippling gold, they flood the room with a honey-colored light.

There is a room for every mood in this fascinating house. There is the quiet sanctity of the Chapel, lighted with the jewel colors of stained glass that lends to its dimness a beauty which changes with every shifting light and the gayety and brightness of the frivolous Marie Antoinette room, with its painted woodwork and garlands of flowers.

Each room has its share of treasures, from the library with its exquisitely carved Italian door to the kitchen with its simple Norman fireplace, all showing the artistic design and careful workmanship which the artisan of that brought to his task….And in this house, Mrs. Sisson has created a gracious background and a fit setting for this unique collection, through her understanding of its enduring perfection.

Mrs. Sisson died on August 16, 1939 at the age of 71. In 1941, dancer Michel Fokine and his wife Vera purchased the home. The home stood empty from 1958-63 when it was the target of vandals and souvenir hunters. It was purchased by Thelma Stovel. A  article in a 1966 Herald Statesman, told the story of “one of Yonker’s oldest and most historic homes” and the effort Stovel was putting into the chateau’s renovation.

In 2001, Kohle Yohannan purchased the home from a Haitian woman in her eighties who was then living there. Windows were broken, squirrels roamed freely, the roof leaked, and the list of repairs that needed to be done was very long. Although it took 10 years and much effort, he did a  phenomenal job of restoring the home. It has been rented for photo shoots (Neiman Marcus, Victoria’s Secret, Vogue magazine), music videos (Beyonce’s Irreplaceable) and film/television (Mona Lisa Smile, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire). He changed the name to Greystone Court.

To glimpse a view of the house, look at the real estate listing.

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Posted in Beta Theta Pi, Fran Favorite, Knox College, Notable Fraternity Women, Notable Sorority Women, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ada Comstock Notestein, Delta Gamma

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

 

Ada Louise Comstock Notestein was born in Moorhead, Minnesota. In 1892, she entered the University of Minnesota where she became a member of the Lambda Chapter of Delta Gamma. After two years, she left Minnesota and enrolled in Smith College in Northampton. Massachusetts. In 1897, she graduated from Smith. She headed back to Moorehead and completed a graduate course in teaching at Moorhead Normal School (now Minnesota State University, Moorhead) and again headed east. In 1899, she earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University, and went back to Minnesota where she taught rhetoric at the University of Minnesota. She also served as the institution’s first Dean of Women.

In 1912, she became the Dean of Women at Smith College.  In addition, she served as President of the American Association of University Women from 1921-23.  Comstock became President of Radcliffe College in the 1923 and held that post until she retired in 1943.

After her retirement she married Wallace Notestein, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. They had known each other at the University of Minnesota. She served on the Smith College Board of Trustees. Although she has buildings named in her honor at the University of Minnesota and on the Radcliffe Quad, a program named for her at Smith College has the ability to change lives. Since 1975, the Ada Comstock Scholars Program has helped hundreds of non-traditional age women to complete a bachelor of arts degree at Smith College.  “Ada Comstock Notestein considered education and personal growth to be a lifelong process. As Ada Comstock Scholars, our lives epitomize these ideals. Active and involved in her work for higher education for women until her death at 97, she inspires all of us with her enthusiasm for life and perseverance in the attainment of personal goals,” states the page on the Smith College website.

She is another of the early National Panhellenic Conference women of whom we can all be very proud.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com. 2013. All Rights Reserved.


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Erastus O. Haven, Friend to Wolverines, Wildcats, and Orangemen, and a Gamma Phi Beta Dad

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Erastus Otis Haven, D.D., LL.D. holds a very unique spot in the history of women’s fraternities. The three campuses at which he served were important ones in the history of the women’s fraternity movement prior to 1902.

Haven served as President of the University of Michigan (1863-69) and Northwestern University (1869-72), and as Chancellor of Syracuse University (1874-1880). All three campuses had chapters of the seven founding National Panhellenic Conference organizations prior to the 1902 meeting at which the National Panhellenic Conference was formed.

Haven was born in Boston on November 1, 1820 and in 1842, he earned a degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. In 1946, Haven married Mary Frances Coles and spent several years teaching. In 1848, he began a career as a Methodist minister. After five years he was hired as a professor at the University of Michigan. The Haven’s eldest daughter, Frances, was born in Ann Arbor in 1854. In 1856, the Havens moved to Boston where he edited a denominational newsletter and was a senator in the Massachusetts legislature.

Haven returned to Michigan in 1863 and became its second president. In 1867, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Michigan legislature recommended that women be admitted into the university (Peckham, 1994).   Haven, along with the Board of Regents, vetoed the idea of women attending the university. There is evidence, however, that Haven may have been agreeable to the women having their own separate college (Bordin, 1999). In his autobiography, Haven asserted that he made the recommendation to accept women at Michigan in 1853 when he was a professor there, “The subject had not been suggested before. It was considered wild and insane.”

Madelon Stockwell, a student from Kalamazoo, was the first woman admitted to the University of Michigan.  Her admittance to the university took much maneuvering on the part of her mentors, the Stones, a husband and wife who were Stockwell’s teachers at Kalamazoo College.  The Stones researched the laws governing the University of Michigan and appealed to an Episcopal bishop who was also a member of the Board of Regents.  Haven left Michigan in 1869 for a similar position at Northwestern University and Henry Simmons Frieze became the president pro tem of the University of Michigan.  The Board of Regents at a meeting in early 1870 voted that the university would be open to any person possessing the required literary and moral qualifications.  After passing an entrance examination, one reportedly more difficult than the exam given the male applicants, Stockwell began her studies at the University  of Michigan in the spring of 1870 (Bordin, 1999).

It is interesting to note that Haven came to Northwestern University from the University of Michigan. Michigan was not coeducational until after Haven left the institution. Sagendorph (1948) cited Haven’s presence at Michigan as a hindrance to coeducation, yet other evidence is contradictory. According to Wilde (1905) coeducation was reported to have been one of the conditions given by Haven before he took on the Northwestern presidency.

The June 23, 1869, meeting at which the vote was taken to admit women to Northwestern University was the same meeting where Haven was elected president.  According to Stratton (1883) these actions may have been connected, “Haven had been a champion of coeducation at a time when others considered the very idea ‘wild and insane’ and had been instrumental in bringing women to that institution” (pp. 109-10).

Frances Haven entered Northwestern with the first group of women. She completed two years at Northwestern and then spent a year studying music in Brooklyn, NY. Haven remained Northwestern’s president until 1872.

In 1874, Haven became chancellor of Syracuse University. There were 173 men and 54 women enrolled. Frances entered Syracuse and declined an invitation to join Alpha Phi, the women’s fraternity founded there on October 10, 1872. With three friends she founded Gamma Phi Beta on November 11, 1874.  Chancellor Haven suggested six possible names; Frances and her friends chose Gamma Phi Beta. Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta remained sole competitors until 1883 when the Beta Tau Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was organized.

Haven remained Syracuse’s chancellor until 1880 when he became a Methodist Bishop. He traveled to the west coast for those duties and there he died in Salem, Oregon in 1881.

There is a street named for Haven in Evanston, Illinois, where Northwestern is located, and a building named for him at Michigan, Haven Hall. There is also a Haven Hall at Syracuse University. It is a residence hall with a dining hall in front of it. The Gamma Phi Beta chapter house is also in the picture.

The references are from my dissertation. I will hopefully have the bibliography available as a pdf soon. If you would like more information on a citation, send me a comment and I will provide more info.

Posted in Alpha Phi, Fran Favorite, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Northwestern University, Syracuse University, University of Michigan | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Erastus O. Haven, Friend to Wolverines, Wildcats, and Orangemen, and a Gamma Phi Beta Dad

Imogen Cunningham, Pi Phi Pioneering Photographer

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The Pi Beta Phi Fellowship Winner for 1909-10

Imogen Cunningham was a pioneer in the field of photography. She was also a charter member of the Washington Alpha Chapter of Pi Beta Phi. Her interest in photography was aided by the opportunity presented by a Pi Beta Phi Fellowship that allowed her to study in Germany.

She also gave birth to three boys with 20 months (yes a set of twins was involved!) and lived to tell the tale.

To learn more about Imogen, read the rest of my post on the Pi Phi blog:

http://piphiblog.org/2012/06/05/imogen-cunningham-a-pioneer-in-photography/

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Julia Morgan, Pioneering Architect, Kappa Alpha Theta, #notablesororitywomen

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Julia Morgan, Kappa Alpha Theta

The renowned architect Julia Morgan was a native Californian. She was born in San Francisco on January 20, 1872. Morgan entered the University of California at Berkeley where she became a member of the Omega Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, which was founded in 1890.

She was one of the first women to graduate from Berkeley with a civil engineering degree. Although she developed a keen interest in architecture, there were no architecture programs on the west coast. After graduation, she headed to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. At that time there were entrance exams and the school was not very welcoming of foreigners. She did not take “no” for an answer. Instead of returning home, she spent two years studying and working in a Paris studio to prove herself and her interest in the field. Morgan was the first woman to enter the Ecole’s Department of Architecture. Four years later, she graduated and returned to California.

Morgan was the first woman in California to be granted an architect’s license. She first worked with John Galen Howard in San Francisco. At the time he was supervising the University of California Master Plan and she worked on several campus buildings.

Morgan opened her own office on 1904. Her first independent commission was a bell tower on the Mills College campus, a structure that withstood the 1906 earthquake. The rebuilding after the earthquake resulted in a number of commissions for her.

In 1908, she designed her chapter’s first official house; at 2723 Durant, it included a swimming pool. Pheobe Apperson Hearst hired Morgan to remodel her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton, California. In 1919, Hearst’s son, William Randolph, hired Morgan to design a main building and guest houses for his ranch at San Simeon. She spent the next 28 years overseeing almost every aspect of the Hearst Castle.

In 1924, the Theta House Association knew changes had to be made to the Kappa Alpha Theta house because it “was no longer adequate or convenient” for the growing chapter.  They loved the house with its “long low living and dining rooms which were so easily thrown into one commodious hall for parties. Even the aquarium held a special niche in our affections.”[1]

The House Association asked Morgan’s advice. Although she was busy designing a Los Angeles home for girls in the film industry, sponsored by the Y.W.C.A. (Hollywood Studio Club), an orphanage in San Francisco, and several private homes, she made time for her Theta sisters.  According to a report, “It would have been very expensive to entirely rebuild; moreover, she knew every beam and joist in that three storied, shingled building and she knew what possibilities were hidden away.  Today, the same old framework and foundation are clothed in soft creamy stucco fashioned in the English Tudor style. The house now faces the garden and in all ways is different from the former one. Inside are six beautiful carved doors and a stately stone fireplace, the gifts of Miss Morgan’s generosity.”[2]

To meet updated structural safety standards, architect Gardner A. Dailey rebuilt the house in 1940. An addition to the west side of the house was added in 1956. A Steinway grand piano from Morgan’s home remains a link for the chapter to one of its most distinguished alumnae.

In the 1920s, Morgan designed a home for the Delta Zeta chapter at 2311 LeConte Avenue; the Presbyterian Westminster House now owns it. She also designed the Georgian-style house on Piedmont Avenue in which Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Pi Chapter now resides. It was originally built for Chancellor Charles Mills Gayley.

Morgan and her staff designed more than 800 buildings. During her 45 years of practice she shared her profits with her staff. In 1927, she was described by a Theta sister, “Julia Morgan is modest; she prefers to remain unsung. But with the evidence of her success and of her thoughtful kindness before us always, we are proud to number her among Theta alumnae.”[3]

She died in 1957 at the age of 85. In 2008, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Although she never married, there was at least one other fraternity woman in her family. A grand niece, Ellen North, became a member of the Chi Omega chapter at the UC – Berkeley in the 1970s.


[1] Kappa Alpha Theta, January 1927, p. 171.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

Posted in Chi Omega, Fran Favorite, Julia Morgan, Kappa Alpha Theta, Notable Fraternity Women, Notable Sorority Women, University of California, University of California at Berkeley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Julia Morgan, Pioneering Architect, Kappa Alpha Theta, #notablesororitywomen

The Grand President Who Was a Kappa Before She Was a Pi Phi

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Emma Harper Turner, one of Pi Beta Phi’s most influential early Grand Presidents, started her fraternity life as a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.  “How can that be?” you say. “There are rules against that!” It’s quite simple; the National Panhellenic Conference had not yet been founded. Moreover, the woman who wore both the key and the arrow asked for and was granted an Honorable Dismissal from Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Read more about Emma Harper Turner:

http://piphiblog.org/?s=emma+harper+turner

 

Emma Harper Turner

Posted in Fran Favorite, Kappa Kappa Gamma, National Panhellenic Conference, Notable Fraternity Women, Notable Sorority Women, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Grand President Who Was a Kappa Before She Was a Pi Phi

S-i-g-m-a P-h-i E-p-s-i-l-o-n Rewards Top Speller!

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I did not know that this is the seventh year that the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation has given a prize to the winner. What a generous prize!

From the Sig Ep Web-site

This Thursday, May 31, 2012, at 8 p.m. EST, the finals of the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee will be broadcast live in Washington, D.C., on ESPN. For the seventh  year, the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation will present a $5,000 college scholarship to the winner.  Board of Governors member Anthony Balestrieri, George Washington ‘03, will bestow the scholarship at the closing banquet on Friday night, June 1.

The Educational Foundation sponsors the Scripps National Spelling Bee because SigEp believes that when students improve their spelling, they increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.   This principle aligns with SigEp’s goal to be a valued partner in higher education.  Good spelling provides a basis for education and communication, which are building blocks for success, credibility and leadership.

And I found out about this by reading one of my very favorite blogs! It’s worth the read.

http://kaiology.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/spelling-c-o-o-l-i-d-g-e/

Posted in Calvin Coolidge, Fran Favorite, Sigma Phi Epsilon | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Ivy Kellerman Reed, Ph.D., Tri Delta, Ardent Esperantist

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Esperanto version of Winnie the Pooh

Among the women in attendance at the first National Panhellenic Conference meeting in Chicago in May 1902 was Tri Delta’s representative, “Miss Kellerman,” as noted on the postcard that Margaret Mason Whitney sent to the delegates (see picture below).

An accomplished linguist, Ivy Kellerman Reed, Ph.D. was a charter member of the Nu Chapter of Delta Delta Delta at the Ohio State University. Her father was the head of the Botany Department at the University.

She earned a Master’s degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In addition, she studied abroad at the Royal University of Berlin. She was also a graduate of the Washington College of Law (now American University) and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1935.

Her specialties were Latin, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit as well as several modern languages. She was an ardent proponent in the movement for an international language, Esperanto. She wrote Practical Grammar of the International Language, first published in 1915, which is still in use today. She also translated many books into Esperanto, including Winnie the Pooh. She served as chairman of the Esperanto Association of North America.

She taught at Iowa State University, did legal research, and was a magazine and government editor. Her husband, Edwin C. Reed was a lawyer who served as executive secretary of the Esperanto Association of North America. Their son, Dr. Erik Kellerman Reed, was an archaeologist.

She also served as Grand Treasurer of Delta Delta Delta from 1900 until 1902.

Posted in Delta Delta Delta, Fran Favorite, National Panhellenic Conference, Notable Fraternity Women, Notable Sorority Women | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy Founders’ Day Alpha Gamma Delta! And a Shout Out to Nann, a Loyal Alpha Gam

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Happy Founders’ Day Alpha Gamma Delta!

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University on May 30, 1904 at the home of Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, a Syracuse University Professor.  It is the youngest of the Syracuse Triad, the three National Panhellenic Conference organizations founded at Syracuse University. The other two, Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta, were founded in 1872 and 1874, respectively.

By 1901, all seven of the founding National Panhellenic Conference organizations had chapters at Syracuse. Dr. 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 Alpha Gamma Delta Founders

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.”

In the early 1980s, I became acquainted with an Alpha Gamma Delta who had graduated from the University of Missouri. She spent a year as a leadership consultant traveling the country and working with Alpha Gamma Delta chapters. Her love of all things Alpha Gamma Delta runs deep and it is abiding. Nann Blaine Hilyard and I became pen pals, writing each other on a regular basis, sharing our love of the history of the women’s fraternity movement in those pre-internet days when research was typically done by using books. This was especially easy for Nann, since she is a librarian.

Nann also has many other interests. She is a quilter and loves buying fabric (and I still have some of the wine and blue carnation fabric she found and sent me many years ago). She is involved in the American Library Association, American Association of University Women and her local Rotary Club to name just a few. She has served these, among other organizations, on local, state and/or (inter)national levels. While living in Maine in the 1980s, she became a member of P.E.O., a women’s Philanthropic Educational Organization that was founded in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan College. When I moved to Carbondale in 1990, Nann sent a form introducing me to one of the P.E.O. chapters here. She sent the form to another Mizzou Alpha Gam (although they were not in the chapter during the same years). Nann made it possible for me to have the gift of P.E.O. membership. Last fall, through fortuitous circumstances, Nann and I were able to room together at the International Convention of the P.E.O. Sisterhood in St. Louis, Missouri. What a treat it was!

On this Alpha Gamma Delta Founders’ Day, I think it is fitting to honor not only its Founders, but also one of its loyal members who has touched my life in a wonderful way. Nann Blaine Hilyard lives the Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose that was written by Emily H. Butterfield:

To gain understanding that wisdom may be vouchsafed to me; to develop and prize health and vigor of body; to cultivate acquaintance with many whom I meet, to cherish friendships but with a chosen few, and to study the perfecting of those friendships; to welcome the opportunity of contributing to the world’s work in the community where I am placed because of the joy of service thereby bestowed and the talent of leadership multiplied; to honor my home, my country, my religious faith; to hold faith inviolable, sincerity essential, kindness invaluable; to covet beauty in environment, manner, word and thought; to possess high ideals and to attain somewhat unto them; this shall be my Purpose that those who know me may esteem Alpha Gamma Delta for her attainments, revere her for her purposes, and love her for her Womanhood.

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“We Trust Nothing Will Prevent Your Being Present” – The First NPC Meeting, 1902

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I just rediscovered this copy of a postcard sent by Margaret Mason Whitney to the women who were scheduled to attend the first National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) meeting on May 24, 1902. This one meeting was the stopping point of my dissertation. It signaled the coming of age of the seven founding NPC members and the need for an umbrella organization to oversee the comings and goings of the women’s fraternity movement.

I enrolled  in the Ph.D. program with no intention of teaching in academia. What I wanted to do was write the dissertation. And I wanted to be hooded with a wine and silver blue hood (wine for Southern Illinois University’s maroon color and silver blue for education – both the colors of Pi Beta Phi!). I had a wonderful adviser and a committee who knew that my intentions were noble; moreover, I loved the topic, “Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities 1867-1902.”

And I still do love the topic. In 2004, I was lucky enough to find a job in this one-horse town, as an Executive Director of a non-profit organization, coordinating three conferences a year. The job has kept me very busy and it has helped us pay college expenses for our three offspring.

This blog has provided me with the opportunity to revisit the topic I love to discuss (my sincere thanks to those of you who encouraged me). I thank the few of you who are subscribed to this blog (including those who are related to me!). It has given me the opportunity to discuss topics of general fraternity interest. 

This weekend, I have been going through the boxes of copies and research notes that have been in the basement since I finished the dissertation. Oh the treasures I have discovered!

The first National Panhellenic Conference meeting is chronicled in another post.

Here is the postcard Margaret Mason Whitney sent to the women who were scheduled to attend the first meeting on May 24, 1902.

It reads:

Inter-sorority Conference, Chicago

On May 24 (Saturday) at 2:30 p.m. (sharp) the following representatives of Greek letter national college fraternities will meet at Mandel’s Tea Room to discuss rushing and pledging.

Pi Beta Phi, Miss Gamble, Detroit, Mich

Kappa Alpha Theta, Miss Laura Norton, 2556 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago

Kappa Kappa Gamma, Miss Margaret Jean Paterson, 6117 Kimbark Ave.

Delta Gamma, Miss Nina F. Howard, Glencoe, Ill.

Gamma Phi Beta, Miss Lillian Thompson, 326 W. 61st Place

Delta Delta Delta, Miss Kellerman

Alpha Phi, Miss Ruth Terry, 1812 Hinman Ave., Evanston

We trust nothing will prevent your being present.

Margaret Mason Whitney, President Alpha Phi

May 17, 1902

The history of the National Panhellenic Conference is fascinating. I hope to chronicle some of it in future posts. (And yes, there was a meeting in 1891, called by Kappa Kappa Gamma, and a day at the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, but this 1902 meeting was followed by one in 1903 and so it signaled the start of a sustained Panhellenic movement).

 


 

Posted in Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, National Panhellenic Conference, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment