Tri Delta – Founded on Thanksgiving Eve

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Delta Delta Delta was founded at Boston University on November 28, 1888, which fell on the day before Thanksgiving that year. In the fall of 1888, four senior women, who had not joined any of the three women’s fraternities then at Boston University discussed their situation. Eleanor Dorcas Pond ([Mann, M.D.) talked to Sarah Ida Shaw (Martin) and they decided to start a society of their own. Pond suggested that they use a triple Greek letter and Shaw chose the Greek letter Delta. Shaw also developed the mottoes and passwords.

All was finished by Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, 1888, but the two met again on Wednesday afternoon, before leaving for the holiday. They met in the Philological Library at the top of the college building. Shaw and Pond embraced and said “Tri Delta is founded.”

Shaw and Pond were intent on getting the other two unaffiliated seniors to join their organization. Florence Stewart quickly agreed, but Isabel Breed took a little more convincing due to her highly religious nature. When she was given the job of chaplain, she relented and joined her friends. The four are considered founders. Soon they were joined by three juniors, five sophomores, and six freshmen. These women were initiated at the Joy Street home of Emily F. Allen on January 15, 1889.

In 1889, Tri Delta’s Epsilon chapter became the second women’s fraternity at Knox College. Kappa Beta Theta was a local organization founded in 1888 by sisters Patsie and Ola Ingersoll.  Beta Theta Pi had a chapter at Knox College and a Knox Beta told his brother, who was a member of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Boston University. The Boston University Beta gave the information to his friend, Delta Delta Delta founder Sarah Ida Shaw.  Shaw began correspondence with the Knox College women.  A Tri Delta charter was granted on July 9, 1889.  A member of the Simpson College chapter, Hattie Berry, initiated the chapter in August 1889, at the home of one of the charter members, Alta March.  A reception was held at the Phi Gamma Delta Hall at Knox College. One of the early initiates of the Knox chapter was Rachel Louise Fitch, known to Tri Deltas as R. Louise Fitch, or more lovingly, “Our Louise Fitch.”

Fitch, a woman well ahead of her time, won honors as a student at Knox, she served Tri Delta in many capacities, including Grand President. She was a career woman, too. My Tri Delta friend, Beth Applebaum, wrote a guest post about her for Women’s History Month 2017.

During World War I, she traveled to Europe and worked for the YWCA in France, collecting stories about the French women and their war efforts, which resulted in the book, Madame France.

She kept her Tri Delta sisters informed about her war work and her letters were published in The Trident. In a letter identified as her last from France, she talks about the first European Tri Delta convention:

I was over in eastern France and had a sudden opportunity to ride with the mail man to the hospital center where Tilley Willey, Alpha Xi, Frances Hammond, Delta Gamma and Ruth Bridge, Delta Beta, are stationed. I grasped this opportunity with both hands and hung on tight until I got there. Ruth was on night duty so I went over to see if Tilley Willey was still at her hospital. I was led to her barrack room and the yip of joy when she saw me was worth a long journey. She was tired and sort of jaded the world temporarily, being encumbered with a lusty cold, and was lying down when I arrived. But there was no more gloom in her vicinity for some time thereafter. Work was light then, as they were evacuating, and her ‘boss’ suggested that she take a day off, which suggestion was eagerly adopted. We had a great visit and I listened with much interest to the story of her work. Her first job after she arrived had been to nurse German prisoners near the front for a couple of weeks. She said she did not mind it much until they kept calling her Kamarad when they wanted something. She stood it for a few times and then told them in firm and decided tones that ‘she was not their kamarad, thank the Lord, and never would be and if they ever called her that again she would do nothing whatever for them. They could call her nurse if they wished, but kamarad, NEVER.’

 

She and her three friends went on a picnic and ate “real U.S. food such as I had not seen in some months – white-bread sandwiches, stuffed eggs, fried bacon, etc.” She spent the night a Ruth Bridge’s hospital and where Bridge told her about spending ten weeks with an operating unit on the front lines. Fitch wrote, “Ruth’s story of the work of the unit makes you gasp with admiration, both for the work and for the marvelous spirit of our wounded.”

Fitch was elected national president in 1915 and so when she had a chance to meet with her NPC friend, Dr. May Agness Hopkins, national president of Zeta Tau Alpha, in France she took it. They had two weeks in the same place. She said:

We had all kinds of visits and trips together and discussed all phases of sorority life and conditions and had one good time. Dr. Hopkins­ had a most interesting experience, which I hope will be written up for her own magazine. If no one else sends it in, I think I shall have to, for it is surely corking. She was asked to take a canal boat of wounded down the canal from Chateau-Thierry to Paris – which she did with all kinds of embellishments. It is really great. I will tell you about it when I see you. She is now in Marseilles with the Children’s Bureau of the Red Cross.

 

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A Glimpse at Syracuse’s Fraternity and Sorority Houses

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

@syracusehistory is one of my favorite instagram accounts. Here’s a recent post about Alpha Epsilon Phi’s chapter house.

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The first fraternity at Syracuse University, the Phi Gamma chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was chartered on November 17, 1871. It was one of the first chapters to have a chapter house at Syracuse. In the late 1890s, a chapter house fund was started and plans were made to build a house. Alumni Edwin H. Gaggin, Class of 1892, and T. Walker Gaggin, Class of 1895, designed the chapter house at Walnut Avenue and University Place (pictured below ). The house opened in 1903.

The Former Delta Kappa Epsilon Chapter House at Syracuse University

The 1970s were not kind to the Greek system at Syracuse University and the chapter moved to smaller quarters on Comstock Avenue. In 1974, the DKE house was sold to the University and it became the Faculty Center. In 1997, it was dedicated as the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center, named for Alfred and Ann Goldstein.

The Dekes now reside at 703 Walnut Avenue in what had been the Phi Delta Theta house.  The home next to the Chancellor’s Residence was built in 1903 and originally belonged to Horace Wilkinson.

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The Daily Orange, Syracuse’s student newspaper, recently highlighted the renovations of the Alpha Chi Rho chapter house with a video tour.  In 2016, a pipe burst, causing damage to the built in 1914 structure.

Photo courtesy of The Daily Orange

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Alpha Gamma Delta founder Emily H. Butterfield. was an architect and an authority on fraternity heraldry. She designed the Alpha Chapter’s home at 709 Comstock Avenue. According to the January 1931 Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly, the home was completed in the fall of 1928. The chapter’s first two homes were rentals. The third home was purchased and “occupied until plans for the new house were executed.”

The Quarterly article gave a detailed description of the chapter’s home at 709 Comstock. The house is Georgian in design:

being of Old Virginia brick with the coping, steps and replica of the coat of arms in buff Indiana limestone. Entrance is through the heavy colonial doorway into the foyer with its high arched windows, fireplace and colorful stone floor. First to the left of the main hallway, which is two steps above the level of the foyer, is the suite of three rooms reserved for the use of the housemother. Beyond, at the right, is the arched entrance to the living room opposite the attractive stairway which leads to the second floor. The living room is spacious in its proportions and with its lovely fireplace with ceiling high built-in bookcases on either side, its creamy walls, walnut beams,oriental rugs and attractive furniture makes a charming setting for the chapter life. At one end of the living room are French doors opening into the sun porch, from which one enters the dining room through an arch. The dining room is also entered through arches from the living room and hall, which makes the entire floor wonderfully adapted for dances and other gatherings.

The dining room is furnished with extensive refectory tables and narrow-backed Windsor chairs. There is also a most attractive built-in buffet. Back of the dining room is the butler’s pantry, the up-to-date kitchen, and two maid’s rooms with bath. On the main floor there are also the coatroom and large lavatory for use at parties, the attractive guest room with its private bath, and the town girls’ room, large and airy with plenty of closet space for all sorts of belongings that may need a safe and temporary housing. The large hall on the second floor is furnished as a lounging room and from it open thirteen bedrooms, each for two girls. All of the rooms differ but each has plenty of space and light and two clothes closets, one for each occupant.

Alpha Gamma Delta, 709 Comstock Avenue

Alpha Gamma Delta, 709 Comstock Avenue

alphagam

The chapter was closed in 2001 and it was recolonized nine years later. During the interim, the house was used as an all-female residence hall called Butterfield House. The chapter returned to the house after the lease with the university ended in 2011. 

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Alpha Phi – A Society and Chapter House of Its Own

Founding Homes of Alpha Gamma Delta

Before 210 Walnut Place – New York Alpha of Pi Beta Phi’s Euclid House

Pi Beta Phi’s New York Alpha Chapter Before 210 Walnut Place 

New York Alpha Chapter House 1911 designed by Ward Wellington Ward. It later served as a home for Zeta Beta Tau.

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Alpha Sigma Alpha – A 100 Year Old Snapshot on Founders’ Day

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Sigma Alpha was founded on November 15, 1901 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its founders had been asked to join some of the other sororities on campus, but they wanted to stay together. The five, Virginia Lee Boyd (Noell), Juliette Jefferson Hundley (Gilliam), Calva Hamlet Watson (Wootton), Louise Burks Cox (Carper) and Mary Williamson Hundley, started their own sorority; they called it Alpha Sigma Alpha.

The Beta Beta Chapter was installed at State Teacher’s College in Greeley, Colorado (now University of Northern Colorado) on  February 19, 1916. Irene Spalding, the chapter’s Acting Historian, wrote about the events of November 1918. The epidemic of which she wrote, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, affected nearly every college campus. Approximately 675,000 Americans died from it. Spalding wrote:

Of all the inconvenient tomes for the epidemic to descent upon is, this was certainly the greatest! We were quarantined on Tuesday of Rush Week, but Beta Beta was so fortunate as to draw the day before as the date for its most important party. The affair took the form of a dinner party, and it assuredly called for some planning, for we had to entertain thirty-two at an expenditure of fifteen dollars, the limit set by Panhellenic. We never could have done it without the help of our Adviser, Miss Payne, and our housemother, Mrs. Tisdal. There were eight tables, each seating four, attractively arranged in the dining and reception rooms. For decorations we used sumac, barberries and kinikinic. In the center of each table was a red shaded candle that diffused a soft glow. The favors were nut baskets made of red crepe paper. From the handles hung tiny Sorority letters of gold. The place cards, the suggestion of our artistic president, carried the Sorority letters in red and the winged sandal of Hermes.

As the quarantine went into effect the very next day our rivals had no opportunity to show hospitality to any of the new girls. It therefore became a matter of personal rushing. The results have been a revelation to us, for the sororities heretofore have had the feeling that it was brilliant affairs that attracted the new girls. Beta Beta now knows that more can be accomplished by a quiet confidential talk with the girls about sororities in general and about the national standing of Alpha Sigma Alpha than can be done by all the parties, however delightful they may be.

On Victory Day, November 11, 1918, the quarantine was lifted. Bells rang, classes were dismissed and an impromptu parade began. The women of Beta Beta saw it as a prime opportunity to foster their recruitment efforts. A car was borrowed from Mrs. Tisdal and Mrs. Abbott, the chapter’s new patroness. Some members decorated the cars and others searched for the potential new members. Together, the rode in the decorated cars, celebrating the armistice. The morning parade consisted of only the teachers college people, but another parade was held in the afternoon and the townspeople joined in. A bonfire took place that night, but the quarantine was back in effect after the Victory Day celebration was done.

I find it interesting how she described the handling of the bids, which seems to be the precursor of preferential bidding as we know it today: 

As the time drew near for bids to go out, the situation became rather tense. We have a ‘lawyer’ system, as it is called in some places. All the bids are handed to the Dean of Women. As soon as the names of rushees are known, she asks the new girls to list the sororities in order of their preference. Then she gives her the bid she prefers, or, if that is not available, the one nearest her preference.

The chapter pledged eight women, and Spalding added:

If the quarantine continues, we may not be able to have our formal pledging until after Christmas, but, although, we know that the ceremony will mean more to the new girls, we fell sure that they can scarcely be more a part of us than they are right now. If you want to feel at home with your new girls from the very start, try ‘personal’ rushing!

Beta Beta Chapter, circa 1922-23

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On Sigma Gamma Rho’s Founding Date

Posted on November 12, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Seven young women who were educators founded Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. on November 12, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. On December 30, 1929, a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University making the organization  a national college sorority. It is the only one of the National Pan-Hellenic Conference sororities not founded at Howard University, site of the Alpha chapters of  Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Zeta Phi Beta.

Sigma Gamma Rho’s founders are Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Mary Lou Allison Little, Vivian White Marbury, Bessie M. Downey Martin, Cubena McClure, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, and Dorothy Hanley Whiteside.

Among the founding members of the Los Angeles chapter, when it was established in July 1939, was actress Hattie McDaniel, pictured above. Her role as “Mammy” in Gone With the Wind earned her an Academy Award. She was the first African American woman to win the award. She was also the first African American woman to sing on the radio in America. She has been honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her contributions to radio and the other for her contributions to motion pictures. In 2006, she became the first African American Academy Award winner to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp.

McDaniel died from breast cancer in 1952 at the age of 57. Her sorority created the Hattie McDaniel Cancer Awareness and Health Program in her honor. Its mission is to provide education and support of early detection of breast, prostate, ovarian, colon and other cancers as well as research for prevention of the cancers.

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Gamma Phi Beta on Founders’ Day

Posted on November 11, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A church oyster supper was the first social event Frances Haven (Moss) attended after enrolling in Syracuse University in 1874. Her father, Dr. Erastus Otis Haven, had been recently elected Chancellor of the university. At that supper, she met the man who would later become her husband, Charles Melville Moss. She also met two members of Alpha Phi, a women’s fraternity founded at Syracuse in October of 1872. Instead of accepting the invitation to join Alpha Phi which had been offered to her, she joined with three other women – Mary A. Bingham (Willoughby), E. Adeline Curtis, and Helen M. Dodge (Ferguson) –  and they found an organization of their own. The date was November 11, 1874. The organization is Gamma Phi Beta, the first of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations to use the term “sorority;” Syracuse Latin professor Frank Smalley suggested the word to the young women.

Since it is also the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, it’s an opportune time to tell the story of Charlotte Hoffman Kellogg, better known in the social language of the day as Mrs. Vernon Kellogg.

Charlotte Hoffman was an initiate of the Eta Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta at the University of California Berkeley. She graduated in 1900.

She was one of the speakers at a Panhellenic luncheon at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., in January of 1932. In her response to the “social and economic revolution we are living through, comes the serious questioning of the right of the sorority to exist,” and that because it was thought to be “an outgrowth of privilege and selfishness,” that it belonged to the past, she said:

As I listen to this charge, I am always amused to set against it my own mental picture of a sorority. I remember a sorority as a place where somebody without position, somebody without money, somebody living in a small third floor room, cooking her breakfast there (and often her supper) after an afternoon of teaching science in order to be able to cram university work into the mornings – a place where such a person found a healthily run home, needed books, music – a meeting spot for friends, a place whose influence extended to those marginal flowerings which drew parties into the ‘working-one’s-way-through’ day. …A sudden invitation – widths of white organdy quickly purchased – Lillian – a machine humming from 3 till 7 – Virginia – an American beauty rose – the beau – the dance – enough thrill to carry science teaching for weeks! In other words, the term sorority in my mind connotes those very things – food, shelter, clothing, happiness, which are the goal of present seeking.

In my own mind the sorority is more akin to the Salvation Army than to institutions of selfishness and privilege ! I am convinced that it is only along lines suggested by this memory of mine that the sorority will live, in the world now in the making.

Charlotte Kellogg and her daughter Jean

Her husband Vernon Kellogg, an entomologist, was on the faculty at Stanford University. She started out as the chairman of the Belgium relief committee at Stanford, and, in 1915, moved up to the position of organizing secretary of the California State Committee. That year, her husband became director of relief work in occupied France and then Brussels. In 1916, Charlotte headed to Belgium. President Woodrow Wilson, Phi Kappa Psi, appointed her to the Commission for Belgian Relief. She spent six months there. Upon her return to the U.S, her book Women of Belgium Turning Tragedy to Triumph was published. She was the only woman on the Commission for Belgian Relief and through her work and the books and magazine articles she wrote, she became known internationally.

A 1918 Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta said this of her:

If you ask Charlotte Kellogg to tell you something of her own achievements, she will answer you in this fashion, ‘It is much more important to get the Gamma Phi Betas started on the milk bottle work than to write an article about me,’ and if the dear lady only realized it, she has revealed in these words the secret of her success. For she has given of herself so wholly, so disinterestedly, so enthusiastically to the cause of Belgium; she has labored so tirelessly for its welfare ; she has placed its interests so far above own, that unconsciously she has become the central figure in the movement for its relief.

Because of her encouragement, Gamma Phi Beta began a Milk Bottle Campaign to help raise funds for Belgian relief.

The milk bottles of Gamma Phi Beta’s milk bottle fundraising campaign. This effort by Gamma Phi took place in theater lobbies where the general public could contribute by putting spare change in the milk bottles.

This appeared in an Arrow of Pi Beta Phi.

 

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The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

November 11 is the date upon which World War I ended – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. It had been known as Armistice Day, but in 1954 it was renamed Veterans Day in the United States. In other countries, it is called Remembrance Day.

The haunting poem, In Flanders Fields, was written by John McCrae, M.D., a Lieutenant Colonel in the Canadian Army during World War I. He was a Zeta Psi from the University of Toronto chapter. McCrae wrote the poem after the May 2, 1915 death and burial of his friend and former student Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer. McCrae died of pneumonia on January 28, 1918, while commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) at Boulogne.

Posts about NPC Women in World War I

I’ve written many posts about the contributions made by NPC women during World War I. Here are links to those posts.

Panhellenic “Refugees” Meet at Sea as World War I Begins

“War Work” by NPC Groups During World War I

World War I “Hello Girls” Led by Grace Banker, a Gamma Phi Beta

R. Louise Fitch, Delta Delta Delta, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

Alexine and Marion Mitchell, Kappa Kappa Gamma, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

Florence Patterson, Gamma Phi Beta, #WHM2018, #notablesororitywomen

Blanche Grand-Maitre, Alpha Xi Delta, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

Gertrude Falkenhagen (Bonde), Alpha Omicron Pi, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

Jeanette Barrows, Alpha Delta Pi, #notablesororitywomen #WHM2017

Dr. May Agness Hopkins, Zeta Tau Alpha, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

Grace Lumpkin, Phi Mu, on Founders’ Day, #notablesororitywomen #WHM2017

Eva Orrick Bandel Wilson, Alpha Phi, #notablesororitywomen #WHM2017

Mary Ann Newcomb (Cornwell), Sigma Kappa, #amazingsororitywoman, #WHM2017

Two Alpha Gamma Delta Yeomanettes, #notablesororitywomen, #WHM2017

#WHM – Grace Wilkie, Chi Omega

#WHM – Gladys Gilpatrick, AΔΠ, and the Pillar in Memorial Stadium

P.E.O.s Knitting for the Navy League During World War I

William C. Levere compiled The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon in the World War. Published by the George Banta Company in 1928, it was indeed a labor of love for “Billy” Levere, who himself served the county. He and more than 7,000 Sigma Alpha Epsilons answered the call to service. May 3, 1917 in the Lives of Some @SAE1856 During World War I.

Grace Banker, Gamma Phi Beta

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Happy Founders’ Day Sigma Kappa!

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On November 9, 1874, Sigma Kappa was founded by five young women, the only females enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. They received a letter from the faculty approving the organization’s petition, which included a constitution and bylaws.

The five founders of Sigma Kappa are Mary Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller Pierce, Louise Helen Coburn and Frances Mann Hall. In Sigma Kappa’s first constitution, chapter membership was limited to 25 women. The original chapter is known as the Alpha chapter. After Alpha chapter’s membership reached 25, a Beta chapter was formed. A Gamma chapter soon followed. Although there were some early joint meetings, the members did not think it feasible to continue that way. In 1893, a vote was taken to limit Alpha chapter to 25 members and to allow no more initiations into Beta and Gamma chapters. In due time, Beta and Gamma were no more.

I’m often asked how I had my start in fraternity and sorority history. I answer that I would routinely find myself lost in reading the bound copies of The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi which were in the archives in the Pi Phi chapter house at Syracuse University. It’s a sure bet that I can find myself absorbed in the magazine of any GLO. Last night, I was lost in issues of the Sigma Kappa Triangle from a century ago.

World War I was first and foremost on the minds of the Sigma Kappa women and each chapter shared what it was doing to help the effort.

There was this cute photo of Murette Morgan, sent by her mother.

This letter contains a quote from Mary Love Collins, Chi Omega. 

And this note from the editor about conventions is timeless and any applies to all GLOs!

 

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Iowa Wesleyan We Love Thee

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, has played a major role in the existence of two organizations to which I belong. In fall of 1868, Libbie Brook, a founder of I.C. Sorosis (Pi Beta Phi) at Monmouth College interrupted her studies at Monmouth to enroll at Iowa Wesleyan. There on December 21, 1868, she chartered Pi Phi’s second chapter. A month later, on January 21, 1869, P.E.O. was established by seven young women. Legend has it that Libbie Brook asked some, but not all, of the seven to become members of her organization. Rather than join without those who were asked declined and the seven formed a society of their own.

Iowa Wesleyan is at a crossroads and the future of the institution is in jeopardy. IWU  President Steven E. Titus, J.D., Ph.D., issued the following statement dated November 1, 2018.

I want to provide an update on the Iowa Wesleyan University’s Board of Trustees special session today. It was a tremendously difficult meeting as we reviewed the financial projections of the university.

As you may know, small liberal arts colleges and universities across the country continue to face significant financial challenges. Iowa Wesleyan University is no different. We have struggled, yet survived, for decades because of our strong commitment to our students and the southeast Iowa region. 

This may be surprising given all our progress and accomplishments achieved together over the past five years. Our enrollment has doubled, student retention has increased, and we have tremendously talented and dedicated faculty and staff members. 

The university does not have a healthy endowment or extensive donor network. We have attempted to secure funding to establish a solid financial base. Unfortunately, several anticipated gifts simply have not materialized. At this moment, the university does not have the required financial underpinnings to bridge the gap between strong enrollment and new programming, and the money needed to keep the institution open. 

Today, the Board of Trustees voted to reconvene on November 15, 2018 to consider the future of the institution. Therefore, we are actively and aggressively pursuing additional funding sources, and new and innovative partnerships, collaborations and supporters. The next 14 days are extremely important as we meet with the USDA, regional business and community leaders, and partners in higher education to explore alternatives.  

These decisions may have a profound impact on students, faculty, staff members as well as the entire southeastern Iowa community. Iowa Wesleyan’s economic impact to the southeastern Iowa region is over $55 million annually. We feel a strong responsibility and commitment to continue the mission of Iowa Wesleyan University. 

Thank you for your prayers and patience. We will keep you updated on the Board’s decision.

Although she attended the groundbreaking ceremony, Mary Allen Stafford had died before the building was completed.

The P.E.O. Memorial Library now houses the administrative offices. The P.E.O. Sisterhood raised the funds to build the library building and it is an impressive building on campus. Old Main and Pioneer Hall are still used and the latter includes rooms highlighting the history of P.E.O. When on campus, it is not difficult to imagine what life was like for Ella, Hattie, Mary, Franc, Suela, and the two Alices as they borrowed the Bible from the chapel and headed to the Music Room where they took the oath of sisterhood, written by Alice Babb.

How did I do my part to help IWU? This morning, I made a small donation to the We Love Thee fundraising campaign as a show of support to a very special institution. 

The P.E.O. Memory Room in Old Main Hall at IWU

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A Syracuse Pennant, a Phi Gam Badge and a 100 First Ladies

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This weekend I was in Massachusetts for another family wedding. I visited Connecticut in October for the wedding of the November groom’s brother. At that reception I had a random conversation with someone who didn’t know me nor what I write about, and she spontaneously told me about her daughter’s wonderful sorority experience when I asked where her offspring went to college. I wrote about that experience a few posts ago.

At this wedding, I saw someone I hadn’t seen in years. She knows my interest in GLOs. On the day before the wedding, she told me that she had a bag of GLO related items she wanted to show me, but had forgotten them at home.

I told her to send me pictures and I would help identify the items as best I could. At the reception on Saturday, she showed me  two items she found in her jewelry bag when she was getting ready for the wedding.

The first was an easy one. It was a Phi Gamma Delta badge. The second item was a 1.5 x 2 inch piece of embossed leather with a Syracuse pendant on it. She might have come over to just show me the items, but then she gave them to me for safekeeping. 

 

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An Alpha Gam friend who is a quilter posted an article about a quilt, First Ladies, that Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry designed and made to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment.

Below are 100 names that she included on the quilt. I spy several sorority women on the list. (Visit the quilt website if you can’t read the names below and you are up for a challenge.) How many can you name? Use the contact form below.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

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Happy Founders’ Day Alpha Sigma Tau!

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I am a few days early, but my Alpha Sigma Tau friends are celebrating. On November 4, 1899, eight young women, Mable Chase, Ruth Dutcher, May Gephart, Harriet Marx, Eva O’Keefe, Adriance Rice, Helene Rice, and Mayene Tracy, formed a sorority at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Alpha Sigma Tau was the name they chose. The organization became a national one in October 1925. 

In 1926, Alpha Sigma Tau joined the Association of Education Sororities (AES). Alpha Sigma Tau became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) when the merger of AES and NPC was formalized in 1951.

On May 5, 1928, the Iota chapter at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, held a Mother’s dinner. It was the climax of a week-end long house party for their mothers. The above picture is of chapter members and their mothers. Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914. Mother’s/Mom’s weekends have been around a long time, and I love this picture of an early celebration.

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