ADPi Pin History
 

We got talking about this on the ebay thread, and so I thought I'd start a new thread. Should I have some time tomorrow, I'll try to move some of the comments from there to here. The idea is to share the knowledge of how our pin has changed (raised hands, flat hands, cut stars, white gold, yellow gold, etc) over the years - which should help people who are bidding on ebay, as well as Alphas.

Fire away!

First comment: We were taught that the Adelpheans had badges, but the Alpha Delta Pis wear pins. I cannot stress how much this was emphasized, and I still cringe when I see ADPi Badge - yet that's what the form reads! AACCKK!!!!!

Was anyone else taught this?

It was always pin for us- late '90's, early '00's. (Is 00's a term?) "Pin attire", "I love the pin", getting "pinned" at initiation. I think "badge" wasn't in my vocabulary until Greek Chat.

http://i4.ebayimg.com/04/i/05/2d/12/9a_1.JPG

According to the dealer, this is from 1997. So, raised hands were in the 1990's.

My pin, from 1972, has the clasped hands slanting downward from each corner.

Do you think if someone was to contact the ADPI historian at EO she might have the answers to this?

I have to go home and double check but if I remember correctly the 1999 alpha class had the raised hands and then my 2000 alpha class did not. I'm basing this on one of the women from the 99 alpha class talking to a TCC about why hers had the raised hands and the rest of us didnt. Apparently the issue with the raised hands is that they had a tendency of falling off (at least hers did) so that might be why they went back to the non-raised.

My 1997 pin does indeed have raised hands! :)

If you look at the Burr Patterson & Auld Website , the current pins do have raised hands... I was initiated fall of 2000, and mine does as well I am pretty sure... I would need to go check when I get home...

I was just initiated last fall and my pin has raised clasped hands.


ETA: As far as the pin/badge debate...I looked on the order form that we are sending in for our Alphas and on there, it's called a badge.

That's what makes me crazy! As I said, it was REALLY emphasized to me that we wear pins!

hc don't forget the 20-pearl vs. the 16-pearl!

ACK!!! In the 1947 Pledge Book I have, they show the two different sizes, just as mine did.

But! I figured out why there's only one size now: With 16 pearls, you can do the jewel-pearl-jewel-pearl etc thing without any extra spots - you can't do that with the 20 pearls and still have all the same points.

What years was white gold NOT available? I know sisters in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's who have white gold pins, but I'm not exactly sure what year each has (there's a limit to what one can ask!).

Ok just kidding i stand corrected my pin does have the raised hands...with 2 pins I sometimes confuse the two :)

Interesting Honeychile... never heard this one... I learned pin through collegiate years and since being an IO and on Council have learned badge...

There was an Adelphean that went through the history of our pin/badges... if I search and find it I'll put some tidbits on here...

Karen Reece is the archivist at EO and Ann Parker Davis, Director or Ritual would be our best two sources to get information :)

Another little item: I was looking at the Badge (*shudder*) Order Form, and noticed that RUBIES are no longer available! Suddenly, I'm not in such a hurry to sell my pin with ruby points!

Also, nowhere does it state that the jewels are synthetic. I know I once asked a jeweler about the sapphires on my pin, and he said that they were genuine.

I always called it my badge while in the chapter...but now I switch back and forth. It is very weird that we sing "I Love the Pin" and have a badge order form ???

That's the very reasoning we were told that we never wear a Badge!

hmm... the order form our alphas were looking at a few weeks ago had rubies... and stated that jewels were synthetic....


and we got the speech that it's called a badge... so seems everyone is all over the place on this topic.

what's the main difference between a pin and a badge in general? Could they just be used interchangeably?

Two of my girls ordered pins with rubies when I sent in the order form last spring. :confused:

And doesn't it say "badge" in the creed?

"...by following the dictates of the four points symbolized by our diamond shaped badge..."

Interesting. I was actually tought that we didn't wear pins, the diamond was our badge.

From a jeweler stand point let me explain something. Synthetic does not mean color glass in this case. Our Synthetic jewels (most likely saphires, emeralds and rubies) are lab created. This means they are geuine stones, but are created in a lab where conditions are controlled. The quality is better. However, it is a matter of preference. Some people still prefer a cloudy emerald to a clear one. Just an FYI.

I was sent a copy of this last year by a gc sister (i think it was polarpi) but I can't remember who off the top of my head (it might have been firstandfinest). If I can relocate it, i'll get it posted somewhere for everyone. Or someone can scan it and post it on the yahoo group.

I will let you know that it isn't detailed enough to answer our questions. I had the same questions a year ago when it was first sent to me.

Yes, they are interchangable. And it's probably a chapter thing that I was told to use pin, not badge (based on "I Love The Pin").

Sherra, I'd love to hear what you have! I was basing most of what I said (except the pin/badge part) on the Order Form that I printed out the other night from PO.

I'll see if i can find it. However, I have moved since then and it might take a few days or a week or so. Someone might get a quicker reply by contacting EO and asking for a copy of the article. It was in a 2004 Adelphean..


Speaking of...Has the Winter Adelphean come out yet?

bump

This is a crazy old thread, but I had some things that might add to it. I was initiated in the early 90s, and at that time the hands were raised on the pin. I want to say they'd been raised for a few years at that point; pretty sure everyone in my chapter then had raised hands. The seniors at the time were the last official "pledges" while the rest of us came in as Alphas. I actually like the look of the raised hands over the flat ones, because the engraving for the flat hands is so variable and they don't always look much like hands. But I'm somewhat surprised they haven't moved to cut costs by enamelling them on flat like the current Phi Mu pin is. Seems like the extra gold for the raised hands and the variability lately in getting them on straight would make a case for it. I think it could look nice, depending on the design. I wish they'd drill the stars again, though; those always looked sharp!

We did have an option between regular and stickpin chapter guards, though I don't remember anyone in our chapter at the time ordering the stickpin version. I've seen references to the stickpin being a new option, which kind of confused me since I remember this being available 20 years ago. I went back to my chapter this year to help with recruitment, and I noticed a lot of stickpin guards. They look very pretty, and I wonder about the pros and cons between the two styles. I'd like to get a white gold or sterling guard to go with a white gold pin I rescued; anyone have any thoughts on the stickpin vs traditional guard pin?

I do not remember having white gold as an option in the 90s (certainly silver wasn't at that time). It was actually interesting to us that our Housemom (herself an ADPi, initiated in the 50s) had a white gold pin since we hadn't seen that. It obviously also had flat hands and cut stars, so different from our raised hands and flat stars. I know white gold was available at some point in the 70s, maybe 80s, then again sometime in the 2000s. But it wasn't available in the 90s as far as I remember.

In college I had a plain pin (no pearls at all; the rope border badge with 4 pearl points was the "step up" pin at the time), and I had a plain chapter guard that could hold about two threads from whatever shirt or dress I was wearing it on :rolleyes:. The plain pin is so tiny that it only has my initials on the back (diagonal across the back, no less), with no chapter designation or initiate date. I'd always wanted something nicer, though, so around 1999 or 2000, after grad school was finished and I was gainfully employed, I decided to get the pin I'd always wanted: alternating pearls and sapphires (my birthstone). The jeweller at the time was Burr, Patterson, and Auld, and no where on the pamphlet was there anything about the stones being synthetic, and I'd known the ones in my college days were real, so I never gave it a second thought about the quality of the gemstones. When I received my pin, there were some manufacturing flaws on the face of the pin, and the sapphires, while beautiful, looked obviously synthetic (extremely bright and too fiery for a real sapphire). I emailed them asking if the stones were genuine or lab created, and they wrote back that all their colored stones were synthetic. I wrote back calling them out on the fact that their brochure said nothing about the stones being anything other than genuine, and they initially brushed me off. However, I printed up the applicable statutes from the Federal Trade Commission regarding labelling of synethetic/lab created gemstones and sent them off to BPA with a carbon copy to EO, and I asked BPA to repair the defects on my pin and replace the lab created sapphires with the real ones I'd paid for. They did comply, and the pin I got back is gorgeous. It may be the last genuine sapphire ADPi pin created, because after that, the brochures were changed to state that all colored gemstones are synthetic. I know that synthetic stones are still pretty, and I know that the cost of real stones would just be prohibitive for most collegians, but I wish genuine colored stones were still an option.

As an aside, when I got the sapphire/pearl pin after grad school, I ended up choosing my married initials for the back of the pin instead of my maiden name initials. That pin was big enough to have those initials as well as my chapter and initiation date on the back. Someone looking at the back of that pin might be confused if they look me up in member search, since they won't find an initiate from that year and chapter with those initials!

I'll chime in on a few of your comments:

I was initiated in '95 and yes, we had the raised clasped hands on our pin. And I don't remember having the option of white gold or silver either. My pin is yellow gold with pearls.

As for the stick pin/guard pin…when I ordered my new pin, I got the stick pin version. I love the way it looks, just not on me! I had to have my jeweler trim it so that it didn't stick out so much. Now it looks great. It is much easier to put on than than the regular guard in my opinion.

And like you, when I decided to buy a new pin two years ago, I went with the alternating pearl/sapphire in silver. I probably would never have purchased a new one, but since I wear my pin regularly (as an advisor), I thought I'd splurge on my dream one! The only thing I do regret is not using my maiden initials. For some reason I feel like since it has my initiation date and chapter, it should have my initiation initials too...I wasn't really thinking when I filled out the form. I'm sure I'll buy another one soon and I'll make sure to use my maiden initials:)

That's good to know about the stickpin guard! I'd really love to get an aquamarine pin in white gold or silver, maybe with pearl points. I was an advisor for a few years, and if I do it again, I may get myself one of those. Also thinking I might do the same as you and get the maiden initials if I get another new pin, but not sure. Wonder if they'd do four initials to cover both bases? lol With your silver pin, do you find it tarnishes easily?

Doubt it. My maiden name is hyphenated and they would only put my first three initials. Granted that was over a decade ago...


Also, I don't remember stick pin as an option when I was an alpha (confirmed by referencing my badge order info I still have from then), though I do remember it my senior year. Seems strange that it's been in and out of availability?

I guess kind of like with the white gold that was available for decades then just not an option for awhile then available again. Maybe it was the change in jewelers that brought the stickpin back? I *think* Balfour was our jeweler in the early 90s, then at some point it switched to Burr, Patterson, and Auld , then finally switched to Herff Jones. I don't see it as an option for other groups, either, and I kind of wonder why not, given Herff Jones makes the majority of groups' pins these days. Guess the individual organizations would have to approve it, but I'm not sure why they'd care much about guard style.

I've had the silver pin a little over a year and it hasn't tarnished yet!

Good to know, thanks!