Old Letters
 

Hey, im looking for pictures of guys wearing letters from the 1940's. every year we have a war themed rush and this year we are trying to throw together a WWII themed rush. I hope you guys can help.

Are you looking for only pictures of Sigma letters or any letters at all?

This probably doesn't apply but GettyImages has a lot of interesting stuff on their site from the 1940s.

They have a few Sigma Chi photos. The ones I looked at weren't in letters but one was of a hazing practice and the other was during a chapter chartering ritual or something.

I forgot to mention...contact your HQ. If you beg enough, they could probably scan and email you some decent pics...

Try your university archive as well. They keep pretty much everything and anything....old yearbooks, old copies of the newspaper, etc. The ones at Otterbein were fantastic for random school trivia/random information.

I know that sometimes military recruiting images are repurposed for rush - maybe that's it?

Sigma Nu was founded at VMI so I can see the tie-in with military/war themes for their rush even if they are on a liberal or pacifist campus.

To me, a WWII theme in terms of parties would be more of the Andrews Sisters and the patriotism side.

Offensive?
 

How would you find a WWII theme offensive?

Due to our military tradition, we use patriotic images of American soldiers as part of our rush material. Since we live in Gettysburg there is a high concentration of reenactors, even in our own fraternity. Its not like we are goosestepping around the house. We have posters saying things like "Sig's Lead the Way" and such, just rephrasing some propaganda posters. The idea spawned years ago by a brother who was a viet nam vet and we have done a different time period every year that culminates in a period party, with music from the time.

And im looking for any pictures of letters, not just sigma nu

I do not find this offensive at all considering SN back ground of being founded at VMI. It would be a natural thing for this SN chapter being located at one of the Civil Wars most hallowed battle grounds.

When you say letters, do you mean written letters of Greek type letters as we know them today?

Good luck in your quest for these types of info.

For what it is worth, "Sig" and "Sigs" are common nicknames for Sigma Chi. As such "Sigs Lead the Way" is quite accurate. :cool: However, if y'all have a Sigma Chi chapter on campus, then it might not help y'all - Sigma Nu - with your recruitment. ;)

I hope you don't include the apostrophe.

No harm meant, this just makes me insane. Especially when students/graduates of higher learning institutions do it.

Ha. ;)

This makes my initial post even coolerererer.

I looove Sigma Chis.

Its us and SAE on our campus. supposedly Sigma Chi is coming back, but thats to be seen.

i am really wondering what fraternity jerseys looked like. I know we all wear letters on tshirts today, but i have never really seen it in the past, they seen to be screen printed and not embroidered.

out of curiosity...When did "wearing letters" as we know it today come into fashion? my parents were Greeks in the late 50s and they claim they never had the sweatshirts with letters as we do now. Both men and women had blazers with the crest. Women wore their pins on dresses and sweaters with skirts, never with pants. The sororities had sweatshirts with the crests and the name spelled out. My dad still wears his college class ring with the greek letters in the stone.

Good question. I do know that lettered sweatshirts, letterman jackets, and sweaters were worn in (and probably even before) the 1960s. They may've only worn these for certain types of events and it may also vary by campus or type of GLO.

It made me think back to when this old man (probably about 65-70 years old) came on campus during homecoming with his lettered sweatshirt on that was clearly old. I think it was Sigma Chi. A couple of students laughed at him. My Sorors and I were like :confused: because when WE see older Greeks (and not just BGLOers) with letters on they get the utmost love and respect from us.

I wanted a letter sweater so badly, but could never afford it while in school. Then when I could as an adult, they were no longer worn. :(

I think the transition occured at the same time that high school and college students stopped wearing letterman sweaters and started wearing jackets.

I hope it's not because you are comparing WWII to Vietnam or Iraq.

They're back, to some extent. :)

At an HBCU homecoming a few years ago, there were Sorors singing circle songs with lettered sweaters. It was a line celebrating its 25th Deltaversary with lettered sweaters that they got made for homecoming. It was absolutely beautiful. :D

I may've even seen younger members doing the ol' school sweater thing. I had one passed down to me by a Soror who crossed in the '50s. I decided to put that in my non-wearable collection, though. :o

At my chapter, as an initiation gift the big brother gives his little a letter sweatshirt(usually a hoodie). In return, the little gives the big a paddle.

I'm not sure exactly when but it definitely was not in fashion in the 1940s. I have a lot of old yearbooks that I'm using for some research into particular groups. I've looked at the ones from the 40s and early 50s and letters simply weren't worn. The only minor exception seems to be during intramural sports.

I've found candid photos in those yearbooks with letters on houses, floats, plaques, etc. but the men in the photos are almost always wearing a coat and tie.

I have a few more yearbooks from that era that I still have to go through. I'll let you know if I find anything.

Thats what i have found so far, simple black t shirts with letter for intramurals. I wanted to know if it was a local thing or widespread

Pitt has put all of their old yearbooks (The Owl) online, and you can see Greeks year by year. Some of the pictures are a riot!

Enjoy!!

^^^Wow, THAT is a serious undertaking on behalf of the university. Impressive.

I'd love to hear a detailed answer/analysis of this, too. Where's oldu when you need him?

Maybe the material and how letters were attached could be compared to the types of helments that the football team used.;)

Times and materials along with designs do change!:D

In the mid sixtys, the letters were printed on with a rubber type letters that after washing begin to fall of!:(:mad:

Wow, that's really neat to look through :) And I saw they had Beta Sigma Omicron there (some chapters were later absorbed by ZTA).

When I have time, I just love to check those out! I can't believe how many sororities were at Pitt at one time or another - even if there were only about 20-30 in each one! I just wish there was a better explanation of where they lived, prior to the houses, and prior to moving to Amos Hall. I think that's when the number somewhat solidified at eleven. There are SO many sororities and fraternities that I've never, ever heard of before! Thanks to whomever sent me the link - I think kddani?

http://digitalmarquette.cdmhost.com/HT/

Marquette also has all the issues of the Hilltop online. It's really neat - I looked up my mom! :)

My school doesn't even have a yearbook. Or a football team. Ha! I wish we had traditions and school pride like other schools do. Our only traditions are protests and not showering.

GT doesn't have all of ours online yet, but a good bit of them: http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/18...logy+yearbooks

I've heard that a lot of schools have discontinued their yearbooks due to costs going up. Which I find very depressing.

Pitt changed the format, back in 1980. The yearbook used to be The Owl, but now it is The Panther Prints; that's why The Owl went online.

I know I'm straying from the topic here but please forgive. Since so few colleges have yearbooks, I wonder....Would you purchase a yearbook for your GLO? It might be kind of neat to have a yearbook with a page for each active chapter. I really enjoy seeing all the bid day pictures on here. Not that many make it into our magazine.

^^^^^---For sure. I was really upset when I found out my college didn't have a yearbook. Thats something you should want so you can show your kids what your life was like!

Absolutly agree.

The students pay for the year books.

I have two from PSU, 1 with the local I started BX and 1 the last year I was there with LXA in it.

I also have one from Mass. St. College 1942 showing the origninal LXA house.

There are as you said some great pictures of how they lived and what they wore!

That is our history!

Yes! I'd love to have a yearbook with pictures and news from each chapter of KD.

I never bought a yearbook from college but every year I bought our Greek yearbook, The Frieze. It had 2 pages for each sorority and fraternity plus tons of candids for Homecoming, Greek Week, Halloween, Formals, etc. I wonder if they still have it. I'll have to ask Jess.

I know I'm coming late to the subject, but I know I've seen pics of coeds from the 50s wearing their sorority letters embroidered on a peter-pan collar blouse. I think it was for one of the sororities that eventually merged with Delta Zeta...like Pi Kappa Sigma or Delta Sigma Epsilon?

Since almost everyone who knows my mother knows that she loves history, she has "inherited" so many yearbooks, you simply wouldn't believe it! It's wonderful if you can get a lot from the same school, but comparing different schools in the same year is fun, too. It's just much more fun when your GLO is in both! ;)

Most of the old ones have a full page of each fraternity sweetheart, and maybe two pages for EACH greek event! You can really see the evolution of greek life through yearbooks.

http://www.logoserver.com/college/Ca...ananaSlugs.GIF

Go Slugs!