Something cool I found out!
 

So I was just going through some old emails and I stumbled upon one from a couple of years ago. One of my great-grandmothers and her sister (my great aunt) were Theta's at Newcomb College of Tulane in the teens of the 1900s. Anyway, I went to the current website of Theta at Tulane (Alpha Phi Chapter) and I read that they use to be a local before they were absorbed by Theta in 1914. The Alpha Phi chapter was a chapter of Phi Mu Gamma. From Baird's "Phi Mu Gamma was founded at Hollins College, VA October 17th 1898 by Maud M Johnson, Elizabeth Cooley, Pearl S. Penn, Mona House, Daisibelle Cooley, Lois K. Sykes, Lizzie Leigh Wood, and Daisibelle Estes. The Tulane chapter started in 1910. The Tulane chapter entered Kappa Alpha Theta, the Brenau chapter united with a chapter of Beta Sigma Omicron to form a local Phi Beta. The Judson chapter entered Delta Delta Delta. The periodical journal of the fraternity is called the Argaliad and is published quarterly. The badge of the fraternity consists of three graduated shields superimposed one above the other. The largest is of gold and is set with pearls and turquoise. Upon this rests a shield of black enamel and upon the latter another of gold bearing the Greek letters of the fraternity's name in black enamel. The colors are turquoise blue and black the flower is the forget-me-not."

Anyway, I just thought this was interesting and I wanted to share. Here is the information about my great-grandmother and great aunt that were Theta's. My great-grandmother died when I was about 14 and I wish I would have asked her about her days in Theta. I never knew my great-aunt, but she was apparently very involved with Theta after college.

My great-grandmother was initiated on 10/14/1916, Alpha Phi Chapter. There are a few references to her in the Kappa Alpha Theta Magazine. (Theta Headquarters was kind enough to send me copies of this and about my great aunt!)

My great aunt was initiated on 9/22/1920, Alpha Phi Chapter. She served as District President from 1929-1933. The accompanying article reflected her active life at that point – playing athletics in college and continuing as an alumnae basketball and baseball player. It says that she was also very active in the Girl Scouts.

ETA: Found a picture of Phi Mu Gamma at Shorter College
http://www.archive.org/stream/argo912rich

that is so neat. how nice to learn about family greek history.

Thats so cool! Thanks for sharing that.

That's really cool! I love learning stuff about my family in the "old" days.

Wow. That's such a cool tidbit of family history! I have to say, not only am I giddy because of the Theta connection, but also because of the Girl Scout connection. I've been an active Girl Scout for 18 years.

So Neat
 

So good of you to share information for all of us. Obviously you come from a long line of giving, serving greeks. I am so grateful AOII got you.

I can't see the link but WOW! I never knew there was a chapter of another national at Shorter! Does it say anywhere what happened to the chapter?

There were 2 nationals that I know of, ASA and Phi Mu, about 1910, and suddenly they were no more and there were only locals. I've never been able to find out what happened.

Now there are 2 nationals, Phi Mu and ZTA, and 1 local that's still here--Ep Sig. The other local (Pi Sig) folded about the time the nationals came back.

According to the 12th edition of Baird's (1930), there were five organizations at Shorter in the early 1900s:
ASA, 1910 - 1912
Phi Mu Gamma, 1910 - 1914
Alpha Kappa Psi, 1911 - 1912
Phi Mu, 1911-1912
Sigma Iota Chi, 1911-1912

From the dates it seems like the administration quickly decided against GLOs. The only thing that doesn't make sense is that Phi Mu Gamma lasted 2 years longer than the others. I don't know what to make of that.

Alpha Kappa Psi had about 9 or 10 chapters. Sigma Iota Chi had 25 chapters. Those 2, along with Phi Mu Gamma, are defunct.

That is just too cool! I know that two of my greataunts (I'm named for one) were in sororities, but I don't know which one(s)! I can remember seeing their pictures in scrapbooks with notations about sorority life, but can't seem to find those scrapbooks. ACK!

I did, however, just come up with something tonight: my mother's cousin's wife was a Gamma Phi Beta, but I never knew which chapter. Turns out that it has to be either UCLA or USC - because she had shown us a photo of her sorority perched on an airplane during WWII! If any GPhiB wants to check, her name is Louise McKeever - I forget her maiden name.

I'll have to see if I can find my membership number amongst all my moving rubble - if so, I'll see what I can do on the website.

I'm the first person in my family to go Greek, but my grandma told me she was in a soroptomist club when she was about my age or a little order. Does anyone know what that is? PM me so I don't hijack the thread more than I already have! Thanks!

Thank you so very much! None of her daughters went Greek (the whole family went to the Naval Academy), so I'd love to somehow get up the nerve to suggest that she donate that picture to the chapter. It's really cute! I know if her daughters go through her things after she's gone, they'll just pitch it.

Soroptimist is a civic club, from what I understand, much like the Altrusa Club, which was modeled after the Rotary Club. I don't know if it's connected to the Optimist Club...I'll bet they have a national Web site that could give you details.http://www.soroptimist.org/index.html

National sororities were banned at Shorter in 1912. The probable reason for the inconsistency with one group listed until 1914 is that often Baird's picked up the dates from the sorority instead of the school. Often with the organization even though a chapter closed at a certain date the chapter was not officially withdrawn until later. I know of some fraternity cases where the charter was not officially withdrawn for more than a decade. (Sometimes hoping for a change in school administration?)

Well, woe for Shorter when they started those locals because almost immediately, their hazing tradition started (this is discussed elsewhere on GC). Those women hazed so hard that they made old-time fraternities' hazing look lame. This kept up, getting worse all the time, until about 5 years ago. The administration finally realized that someone was bound to get hurt and started thinking about risk management and decreed that all locals would go national.

At the last minute, they allowed one local sorority to stay but Phi Mu and Zeta are much larger and far more powerful. The local even attempted some hazing a couple of years ago but the dean, a KD, found out.