The National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization for 26 women’s fraternities/sororities, officially met for the first time on May 24, 1902. It was at Alpha Phi’s invitation that the first meeting took place. A week prior to the meeting, Margaret Mason Whitney, Alpha Phi’s President, sent a postcard to the women who were scheduled to attend the first meeting. All but one woman lived in the Chicago area.
The postcard read:
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 (to read more about her see http://wp.me/p20I1i-dj)
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 women gathered together in the tea room of Mandel Brothers Department Store in downtown Chicago. Lillian Thompson, Gamma Phi Beta, attended the first meeting and served as Chairman at the 1913 meeting. She later shared her experiences in an article, reflecting, at that point, on more than a decade of attending NPC meetings, “This sort of meeting was quite new to me. I had only the vaguest idea of what the delegates were expected to do; and having been brought up in the good old school in which those who were not of were against us, I had no great desire to meet my friends the enemy. There was no time to debate, however, and nothing to do but to go, so one afternoon, I entered the lunch room at Mandels’ looking for a group of women wearing fraternity pins. I easily found them, introduced myself, and then racked my brains for topics of conversation which should be both polite and safe; for I had a most uneasy feeling that some fraternity secret might escape me unawares, and fall into hostile hands.”
Mandel Brother’s, Chicago, Illinois, Early 1900s
The women then went to the Columbus Safety Deposit Vaults at 31 North State Street where they met in the large board room; the use of the room, which could seat 40 comfortably, was contingent upon the renting of a safe deposit box. Alpha Phi’s delegate, Minnie Ruth Terry, made the arrangements for the meeting. According to Thompson, Terry “found a most appropriate place for our meeting — a safety deposit vault; and before long we were admitted through heavy iron gratings to a long passage way, which led at last to a director’s room, closed by a massive wooden door which seemed amply able to keep the biggest secrets from escaping to the outer world. We all sat down at the big table, and for the first few minutes there seemed to be a be a vague feeling of insecurity — of suspense.”
Columbus Building, 31 North State Street, Chicago
The women were waiting for something, according to Thompson. It was “that elusive, and yet most potent thing, ‘the tone of the meeting’ to be established, and until some one supplied it we were ill at ease. This duty fell to Miss Terry, our chairman, and as I look back on that first meeting, I can plainly see that the whole Pan-Hellenic movement was given its successful start by her. Miss Terry is one of those calm, well balanced, fair-minded women, who state business in such a clear unbiased way that one feels impelled at once to consider things without prejudice. Gradually we all warmed to the work, forgot our strangeness, and talked over Alpha Phi’s rushing agreement with the utmost interest and frankness. Before we left, a most friendly spirit had developed; we had enjoyed our afternoon, saw plenty of work ahead of us, and looked forward with pleasure to meeting again.”
Lillian Thompson, a member of Gamma Phi Beta’s second chapter at the University of Michigan, was Gamma Phi’s National Panhellenic Conference Delegate for 34 years. She served as Chairman of the 1913 meeting.
The representatives kept meeting and more joined them year by year. They began to meet earlier in the day and they met at a hotel “to take lunch together, that we might have more opportunity to get acquainted. By this time I had begun to discover a number of ‘typical Gamma Phis’ who had mysteriously strayed into other fraternities. The discussions, too, had been bringing out the strong points of the various societies….At each meeting we learned some scheme which we longed to try in our own fraternity, and went home full of plans for introducing it.”
We know that that first meeting in 1902 was a success for the group kept meeting and working and kept advancing the cooperation between all the groups. More women’s fraternities/sororities joined NPC. Happy 113th Birthday NPC!
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
