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

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).

 


 

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