[purcupile]

It is very presumptuous of me to refer to myself as an artist of any sort when actually I am a history buff who can stay in the lines. I became interested in the history of my fraternity (never called it a frat, and it’s very unlikely I will ever call it a GLO) when I was fortunate to come across a copy of the history of my fraternity written in 1906. As I read that history I became intrigued with the development of the coat-of-arms and began to study other histories and images from different fraternities.

It is important to note that on this subject a little of the evolution of fraternities and sororities from literary societies to social societies is important. During the 1870’s into the 1890’s most fraternities were loosely controlled organizations. While they had their roots in a small group of founders the growth of these organizations was limited by the necessity to keep their existence a secret from the administration of their various colleges. It being easier to keep a secret among a small group resulted in slow growth in membership in terms of both individuals and chapters. Following the War of Rebellion and the 1870’s began a period of breaking out of their secret existence. As a result there was a growth of expansion with chapters quickly springing up in different geographical areas across the country. With this expansion there was more control at the chapter levels than through what was then a disorganized national leadership. This resulted in different images (most often in the form of steel engravings) of the various organizations reflecting the local image of the individual chapters or charters. These images most always were represented in the college annuals…in fact that was about the only place where an organization’s image appeared. Some of my favorite images came from this era, in the form of elaborate allegorical representations from the various chapters. One of my favorite images was a Sigma Chi image of their badge and motto floating above an island…from that image I created, what I consider to the most beautiful image of the Sigma Chi badge. I have subsequently seen this same allegory with other fraternity’s badges and mottos. However, I digress as this forum is for a discussion of the arms of the fraternities not for badges…nor is it my intent to discuss fraternities different from my own.

Following this period of chapter freedom the National leaders began to see a need to control what today we call “branding” of their organizations…they wanted to be in control of the images of both their badges and coat-of-arms. It was vital that they take this control for jewelers across the country were designing badges however an individual member wanted it done…and they were finding every possible use for the images they were creating…button covers, hat pins, watch fobs, shirt studs as well as adding symbols and colors which was never intended. And the same thing was occurring in the designs of the coat-of-arms and the seals.

During the period of the late 1880’s through the turn of the century many fraternities went about creating specific images which incorporated the rituals, and purpose of their founding. Some just drew up an image which appealed to them, while others took a more pragmatic approach which required that a heraldic description from which to artistically design the coat-of-arms. For those reading who are not familiar with that terms is a cryptic and specific description of a coat-of-arms,,,it follows the ancient symbols in use hundreds of years ago. At that time there were only 5 colors and 2 metals that were used on arms… e.g. horizontal lines symbolized azure in drawings.

The blazon for the “new” (new being over 100 years ago) coat of arms of my fraternity (Phi Delta Theta) reads:

Escutcheon: azure, on a bend argent, between six mullets of the second, a sword or point downward.

Helmet: affrontee, visor closed of the third, mantling of the first and second.

Crest: a dexter arm embowed vambraced of the third, hand carnation hurling a javelin of the third.

Motto: Eis anhr oudeis anhr

After exhausting and painstaking consultation of heraldic authorities The Fraternity, had the blazon completed and since that description accurately described the various elements of the coat-of-arms it was turned over to the engravers to interpret and etch their image into copper sheets from which the steel engravings were produced.

This leads to the interesting saga of the Phi Delta Theta coat-of-arms. The Fraternity had various images submitted which reflected engraver’s interpretation of the blazon. A specific image was chosen and copyrighted in 1899, and an engraver R.B. Lockwood of New York was selected to engrave the new coat-of-arms. When it was completed it was provided to the publishers of the various college annuals. However the final engraving was rejected by the Convention of 1900…Lockwood had further embellished the image by adding different and undesired components. For instance he added a face on the top of the helmet, changed the visor to look more like a mouth, and added crescent to the bottom of the helmet. This last embellishment was offensive to the members as it did not represent their Christian ideology or the tenets of The Fraternity.

The Convention of 1902 ordered that the coat-of-arms should be engraved by Louis Dreka of Philadelphia…a well know engraver who engraved for the U.S. Mint and was responsible for many fraternity and sorority images. Dreka completed his eng4aving in 1903 and his coat-of-arms was accepted and was the frontispiece of The Scroll, October 1903. The chapters across the country were given the assignment of seeing that the publishers of their annuals had the new coat-of-arms. In many cases this did not happen and as a result, for nearly a hundred years the Lockwood design was used by publishers.

At this time the images of most organization were only what was published in the college annuals and a few specialty publications, in almost every case those images were only a few inches tall. The sometime in the 1920’s a Phi Delt artist hand-drew the image which increased the size, but it was drawn from the Lockwood image and as a result nearly every product the licensed vendors create is from that hand-drawn image…the one rejected by The Fraternity.

I have digitally recreated the coat-of-arms, as well as badges of Phi Delta Theta and I am in the process of donating them to The Fraternity. Those designs represent more than 1000 hours of study and design. As I have done with all of my images I have created them as a vector image which results in being able to reduce the image to the size of a postage stamp and enlarge it to billboard size without any distortion or pixilation.

If anyone is interested in seeing some of these images I will try to figure out how to manage the uploading images process and add them to a later post.

Purc