Help me identify a lost pledge pin

[DeltAlum]

wptw,

You aroused my curiousity, because somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I had seen a Delt badge with a Star of David. So, I took a look in my copy of "Sing to the Royal Purple," the official Delt history.

I found a badge from Beta Chapter (my own chapter) dating back to 1862, which was nearly identical to our present badge. So, that design has been around at least since then. My impression is that it was designed by the founders.

However, in looking farther, I did discover what was called the "Star Badge" which was, in fact, a six pointed star with some of the secret symbols inside the center and five pointed stars and two other symbols inside the Deltas (triangles) which form the points. There was also a pledge badge which was very much like the one you described above. It appears that these may have been used by some chapters sometime in the very late 1800's. The "star" is interesting since the two main triangles making up the star do not appear to be equalateral, which makes the very top and very bottom triangles somewhat larger than the other four. I have no idea why that is.

What is interesting to me is that the "Star of David" is generally today considered a symbol of the Jewish Faith. To the best of my knowledge, Delt has never been a predominently Jewish fraterniy. I did have a Jewish Pledge Brother back in the 60's, and there were other Jewish members of the chapter, but the fraternity is really non-denominational. I'm sure the six pointed star had other meanings over the span of time as well.

I can tell you that the pledge badge with the concave sides, four stars and white enamel was the one I wore back in 1966.

Thanks for sending me on this fact finding mission. It was kind of interesting.

Fraternally,
DeltAlum