Ida Shaw Martin
 

Ida Shaw martin is probably the most instrumental person ever in the development of the sorority system. I don't know if much has been written about her on this forum but Xidelt asked me to do some research and report.

First she edited a publication "The Sorority Handbook" which was a Baird's Manual type edition strictly about sororities. The first was published in 1905 and a total of eleven were published, the last being 1931. They are very very rare, and expensive if you are lucky enough to find one. I have the 6th, 8th & 9th editions in my library.

Because she edited the publication she quickly came somone who others sought for advice, especially local groups seeking national affiliation. Sometime during the 1920s she became more official and organized The Sorority Service Bureau. During this period she was instrumental in founding Pi Lambda Sigma (absorbed by Theta Phi Alpha in 1952), Theta Upsilon (absorbed by Delta Zeta in 1962), and Theta Sigma Upsilon (absorbed by Alpha Gamma Delta in 1959) all in 1921; Lambda Omega (absorbed by Theta Upsilon in 1933) in 1923; and Pi Delta Theta (absorbed by Delta Sigma Epsilon in 1941) in 1925.

Zeta Tau Alpha gives her credit in helping them achieve NPC status and aiding in founding their first northern chapters. She claims to have been instrumental in changing the name of Alpha Delta Phi to Alpha Delta Pi. She was also elected national president of Alpha Sigma Alpha during their early years (and edited their magazine).

The most recent history of Delta Delta Delta devoted several pages to this fascinating woman. It seems to me that NPC should be doing more to immortalize this amazing sorority pioneer.

I never knew about her Pi Lambda Sigma connection! Admittedly, I don't know too much about Pi Lambda Sigma at all, aside from the very basic facts about Theta Phi's absorbtion :o Were they ever a member of NPC?

She sounds like quite a lady.

Keep all the great info coming, oldu, fascinating stuff.

Didn't Mrs. Martin also try to get Delta Zeta and Zeta Tau Alpha to merge? I think I remember reading that somewhere. The merger failed because neither group wanted to give up their letters or symbols?

Hey! Oldu? Where's the Mary Love Collins thread??!??

Thank you for the information! I really love all of this info on Greek history...just bought a history book of Pi Kappa Sigma off of Ebay. And I happened to capture a copy of The Sorority Handbook for $16 off of Ebay last year.

Bumping to share that at this University of California Digital Library page, you can download (for free) Ida Shaw Martin's The Sorority Handbook (3rd ed. 1909) in pdf, epub, kindle and other formats. You can also get the google books version here (same UC archives copy).

It really is a fascinating read, especially when you see how many of the sororities had fewer than 1000 members total. I didn't keep count, but I think Pi Phi was the largest group at 5200 total members.

And I was interested to see a separate section on "Musical Sororities," which included discussion of Alpha Chi Omega (by then "Musical-Literary") and Mu Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Iota and Phi Mu Epsilon (which merged with Mu Phi Epsilon). There is also a section on "Medical Sororities" (Alpha Epsilon Iota, Epsilon Tau and Zeta Phi).

But I think my favorite part was this description of the Phi Mu badge: "The badge is an oddly shaped shield of black enamel dispaying in the centre a hand holding a heart."

Now if I could only find digital versions of Emily Butterfield's College Fraternity Heraldry.

I have a copy of that publication. PM me and I can get you a copy.

BG

Thank you so much, MysticCat! I downloaded it and am looking forward to reading through it.

That is incredible! Thanks for sharing MC! I downloaded it too and am trying to keep from reading it all right now.

How was she able to do all that?!

The sororities were also founded at different colleges...was she a professor or something? I am so confused and amazed by Ida Shaw Martin!

She was an amazing woman. Putting together a book like the Sorority Handbook was a very real chore back in the early 1900s. She corresponded with the groups themselves trying to find information. Her Sorority Service Bureau assisted Greek-letter organizations. I'm working on a post about her and hope to have it done soon.

Edited because I apparently can't read time stamps today and replied to a 5 year old post.

I find it interesting that she also helped found several NPC organizations. I wonder if it ever became an issue that she was a sister of so many NPC's...

pas,

Sarah Ida Shaw Martin wasn't a member of all of those organizations, she just acted as consultant. She had the Sorority Service Bureau. She was privy to secret information in rituals b/c she wrote some of them. But she wasn't initiated into the other organizations, save MAYBE Alpha Sigma Alpha. She saved ASA and eventually became their president. However, it wouldn't be a big deal if she was DDD/ASA b/c ASA was not NPC- it was in the (what became known as ) the Association of Education Sororities (AES). There were many dual memberships btwn NPC and AES until AES dissolved and all members joined the NPC. Then ladies w/ dual memberships had to choose their affiliations.

I believe I read something a long time ago that Ida Shaw Martin had once proposed a merger between Zeta Tau Alpha and Delta Zeta, since ZTA was strong in the south and DZ was strong in the north. Obviously this did not happen, but it is interesting to consider what a powerhouse sorority that would have created.

I have been researching Theta Upsilon and my understanding was that Ida Shaw Martin wrote rituals and local sororities went to her when they were interested in becoming a National and she would give them the ritual and assist them...She is like the mother of so many sororities!!

According to the downloaded handbook to which I linked, Ida Shaw Martin said, "Both [Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu] were suspended for a few years during the Civil War, owing to the closing of the institution, but were kept alive through the efforts of resident members."

According to the Georgia Wesleyan site, "Civil War [;] Not one year of academic life was lost at Wesleyan during the Civil War, though classes were suspended for two weeks in November 1864, during Sherman’s march through Georgia."

Yes, it's nitpicking, but it's worth noting. Mrs. Martin seems to be such an amazing woman, and I wouldn't try to take that away from her - but she didn't have access to immediate information.

Pas, I am interested in Theta Upsilon also. Did you find a link to Mrs. Shaw with Theta Upsilon. Since that group was founded at UC Berkley, I assumed they would have been remote. I did hear that she worked with some women at eastern schools to start new groups.

As a Tri Delta, I always thought it would be interesting to somehow peek in on the rituals of the other groups she assisted with and see what kind of overlap there is with ours.

She was an amazing woman. I wish I could have met her.

Me, too. And can you imagine what she could have accomplished in the internet age? I can only imagine the level of correspondence it took to compile her Sorority Handbook. It must have been relentless correspondence with GLO officers, campus officers, etc. And where we'd use an easily edited spreadsheet to keep track of information, she was stuck with pen(cil) and paper, lots of paper.

I wanted to contribute to a bit of info...

I do know that Ida Shaw Martin and Mabel Lee Walton were great friends and when Sigma had to give up some of its chapters, I know of at least one of them was "given" to Tri Delta and I believe it was our Gamma Chapter (Sigma Historians, help me out...) and I strongly believe it was because of their friendship.

Also, I think it may have been hinted at (upthread) that Ida and Mabel were both every instrumental in forming the AES.

That is my tiny contribution to this thread.

I revere both of these ladies because of their contributions to both of their organizations, "greekdom" and the world in general.

I know this will probably be misinturpreted, but...
 

As accomplished as Ida Shaw Martin was (no doubt), it's interesting to me (as a Chi Omega, of course) that when Baird's Manual was FINALLY dedicated to a Greek woman -- Mary Love Collins of Chi Omega was chosen.

There were a number of women who played vital roles in their own organizations, AES, and NPC. Mabel Lee Walton, Mary Love Collins, Amy Burnham Onken, Dr. May Agness Hopkins, L. Pearle Green (who served twice as chairman 40 years apart - the world in 1909 was quite different than 1949), and many more. Oh to be a fly on the wall of a random early 1900's NPC meeting!

That is indeed noteworthy. But I wonder if it could have had anything to do with the fact that by the time the Baird's editors finally saw fit to dedicate an edition to a woman (18th ed., 1968), Mary Love Collins was still living, while Ida Shaw Martin had been dead for many years.

True that.

There is a copy of the sorority handbook for sale on eBay if anyone was interested.....it's listed cheap...

Just an FYI....
Bg

Well if anything, Ida Shaw Martin's name is much better know than Mary Love Collins. I think her influence has been felt much farther.