March 15, 2024, officially marks 150 years of the Do Good Sisterhood. Founded in 1873 at Lewis School in Oxford, Mississippi, Delta Gamma has more than 260,000 initiated members, 149 collegiate chapters and more than 170 alumnae groups.
The sesquicentennial kicked off at the 2022 Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, included a Homecoming Celebration Weekend in Memphis, Tennessee and Oxford, Mississippi, in the summer of 2023 and will conclude at Convention in Palm Desert June 27-29.
This Founders Day, sisters are invited to join us for a virtual Founders Day program. We'll be joined by Delta Gamma Archivist Diane Hall, Eta Upsilon-Drexel, who will take us into the Delta Gamma vault and show us some of DG's most coveted "crown jewels." She will teach us the history, meaning, and significance of some of our oldest and most precious badges and jewelry. In addition to Diane's presentation, we'll celebrate our Founders with a candlelighting ceremony. You won't want to miss this, so register today!
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Mallory Borino, Director of Marketing and Communications, media@deltagamma.org
Columbus, Ohio [February 20, 2024]— In honor of the sesquicentennial milestone, Delta Gamma Fraternity has partnered with HistoryIT to digitize over 150 years of archival treasures currently stored and displayed at Executive Offices (EO). This project will span over four years and will help ensure the long-term preservation of the history of Delta Gamma.
“History gives us a connected past and a shared identity.” Said Fraternity Archivist and Historian Diane Hall, Eta Upsilon-Drexel. “That is why its preservation is so important. The history of the Do Good Sisterhood has been carefully safeguarded for 150 years. For those 150 years, Delta Gamma has touched so many lives and our members have contributed to the world in extraordinary ways. Now, our members will have access to this vast history at their fingertips. It is awe-inspiring as a historian to be a part of an organization that cares so deeply about its past. To be able to make it accessible to all members of truly remarkable. This kind of project is a dream come true for any historian and I feel so honored to be part of such an amazing work.”
Up to this point, a fraction of the items have been displayed for visitors at Executive Offices in Columbus, Ohio. And while a future state-of-the-art museum at Executive Offices is underway, members and the public will soon be able to access the entire archive via an online searchable database curated by History IT.
"Delta Gamma's dedication to saving and sharing their history is truly admirable. By digitally preserving the entirety of the Fraternity's archives, countless new stories and new connections will be made available to anyone, anywhere.
— Kristen Gwinn-Becker, Founder & CEO of HistoryIT
We are honored that Delta Gamma has trusted our team with safeguarding their history and sharing it with the world. We look forward to developing a digital museum that showcases 150 years of the Do Good Sisterhood and inspires future generations."
HistoryIT has already been digitizing all prior issues of the ANCHORAs, going back to the first issue from April 1884. Those and 400 other objects from the archives that HistoryIT digitized to begin building the online database were funded through the Delta Gamma Foundation.
While this project is underway, archive materials will be safely stored offsite during the renovation of Executive Offices. The digital archive will be unveiled at the 71st Biennial Convention held in Palm Desert, California June 26-30, 2024.
About Delta Gamma: Delta Gamma Fraternity was founded in 1873 at Lewis School in Oxford, Mississippi. The Fraternity’s primary purpose is to foster high ideals of friendship, promote educational and cultural interests, create a true sense of social responsibility and develop the best qualities of character. Delta Gamma has more than 260,000 initiated members, 149 collegiate chapters and more than 160 alumnae groups. Delta Gamma Fraternity Executive Offices is in Columbus, Ohio.
About Delta Gamma Foundation: Incorporated in 1951, the Delta Gamma Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formed as a complement to the Delta Gamma Fraternity, creating a vehicle for members to promote the educational interests and social responsibility referenced in Article II of the Fraternity Constitution. The Delta Gamma Foundation fosters lifetime enrichment for members, promotes Service for Sight and partners with the Fraternity to ensure the future of our sisterhood.
Registration for our 71st Biennial Convention is now open!
Join sisters beneath the California palms to conduct DG business and celebrate 150 years of sisterhood. Delta Gamma's 71st Biennial Convention will be held June 27-30 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, California.
This Convention will conclude our sesquicentennial celebration honoring 150 years of the Do Good Sisterhood. Join us Thursday night as we flamingle under the California stars. Friday and Saturday we will celebrate our sisterhood as well as conduct business of the Fraternity and Foundation. Saturday evening, we will hold a special closing banquet looking to the next 150 years.
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime event. Register today!
From the Archives: Article II
What better Delta Gamma artifact to start the sesquicentennial year with than Article II? Ask 150 Delta Gammas, “What is Delta Gamma?” and you will likely hear the word “friendship” in all 150 answers.
The origin of Article II goes back to our very founding. The very first Constitution was written the night Delta Gamma was created. Anna, Eva and Mary were sitting on “Old father Noah”, the name they had given the large four-poster bed in their room when they decided to form a society for mutual helpfulness. Because Anna was seated outside the bed, she slipped out and retrieved a pad of paper and pen. The three then wrote the first Constitution and bylaws. Unfortunately, that document has been lost to time. The oldest Delta Gamma Constitution dates to 1877 and is kept in the Frances Lewis Stevenson Archives at Executive Offices. As it was only four years after the founding, it is likely very similar to the one the Founder wrote that night.
At that time, the wording that is the predecessor of Article II of today was not its own article; it was section two of article one. It read, “The object of this club is the improvement of its members, morally and intellectually, and for the cultivation of sisterly love.” Revisions were made throughout the years, and in 1885, we see something closer to what we have today.
While the wording has changed, we can see the origins of the Article II of today, “The object of this Fraternity shall be to foster high ideals of friendship among women, to promote their educational and cultural interests, to create in them a true sense of social responsibility, and to develop in them the best qualities of character.” As we reflect on the past 150 years of our history, we will be considering not only the times when this ideal has been upheld but also times when it has failed to be upheld.
What do you think Article II will look like in another 150 years?
From the Archives: Centennial Quilt
Delta Gamma was born in December 1873 when three young women found themselves far from home for the holiday season. They formed a club for mutual helpfulness that has grown into an international organization. We say goodbye to 2022 and enter 2023, the year Delta Gamma will turn 150 years old. For this final blog post of the year, we will look at one of the largest objects kept in the Frances Lewis Stevenson Archives: the centennial quilt.
In 1973, to celebrate Delta Gamma turning 100 years old, Officer Training Seminar (OTS) was held in Oxford, Mississippi, June 20–26. Kathryn Bell Gray, Mu-Missouri, who served as Fraternity President from 1972–1973, asked delegates to participate in a quilting bee as part of the centennial celebration. In her call to action, she spoke of how common quilting bees were at the time of the organization’s founding and alluded to what a quilt can symbolize, “You pieced your own, or you helped a friend. Then you took it to a gathering of ladies to be quilted. In this Centennial Year, and with your help, Delta Gamma is about to have a quilting bee. We are going to make a friendship quilt stitched with happy memories and hope for the future of our Fraternity.”
Kits and instructions were distributed, and each chapter was asked to create a design that reflected their school, location or their chapter in some way. But there were also several requirements for the design. Each had to include the chapter’s letters and installation date as well as the name of the school. Squares for chapters no longer in existence were crafted by alumnae. The center square, larger than the rest, representing the Mother chapter, was done by Mary Ann Dalton Shepard, Nu-Idaho. New sections have been added over time over. As part of the 150 celebration, squares from chapters not yet represented on the quilt were gathered. They were sewn on by Nikki Sabato, Eta Upsilon-Drexel, an alumna initiate who was initiated at the 2022 Convention.
The Centennial Quilt is featured in the Cable Connection section of the Winter 2022 ANCHORA. Stay tuned to learn more about the work put into completing the squares for chapters established since 1973.
From the Archives: The First Delta Gamma Cookbook
The first Delta Gamma cookbook was proposed to help fund Delta Gamma’s scholarship program. As far back as 1880, there were discussions of how to provide financial assistance to members when Sallie Young, Delta I-Trinity, wrote to the Mother chapter expressing her hope that such a fund could be established. At the 1911 Convention held in Waupaca, Wisconsin this hope finally became a reality. Ruth Rosholt, Lambda-Minnesota, presented a report on an investigation she conducted into fellowships and scholarships in other women’s fraternities. To raise the funds needed, it was decided that $200 from the treasury would be used and 50 cents from every initiation fee and from the annual dues of each member.
Another funding source would be the sale of the first Delta Gamma Cookbook. This project was led by the Minneapolis alumnae chapter. Compiled from recipes sent in by members, it was published in 1912. By 1913 it had made a $500 profit. The recipes featured in the book came from Delta Gammas far and wide. Two of our Founders contributed to the book. Mary Comfort Leonard submitted several recipes: Southern Corn Meal Spoon Bread, Fruit Cake, Cheese Straws and a drink called Blackberry Acid. Eva Webb Dodd submitted recipes for Ribbon Cake and Divinity Loaf, as well as chocolate and marshmallow filling for cakes.
From the Archives: The First Alumnae Chapter
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The story of Delta Gamma’s first alumnae chapter reflects an important cultural moment in the United States in the 19th century. Allowing women to attend higher education institutions alongside male students was a controversial issue in the 1800s. The first college to admit female students, Oberlin College, did not do so until 1837. When Adelbert College began admitting women in 1883, a Delta Gamma chapter was installed that very year. Out of the 12 female students, seven were Delta Gammas. The women were met with hostility by the male students, as Cornelia Beardslee, Theta II-Adelbert recalls, “The [women] were not popular at Adelbert, and there was a sharp rivalry and jealousy on the [men’s] part as the girls did take the honors in every class.” Despite the women performing so well in their academics, feeling against coeducation grew until, in 1888, Adelbert barred women from attending.
That year at Convention (the fifth ever held) in Evanston, Illinois, the Delta Gammas from Adelbert applied for a charter of an alumnae chapter. Alumnae had been an active and integral part of the Fraternity for years, and a few had held gatherings. For example, alumnae in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Akron, Ohio, organized from time to time, but no formal alumnae chapter had ever been formed. The Delta Gamma Constitution did not even provide for alumnae chapters at the time women of Adelbert made their request. An article had to be created and incorporated into the Constitution, and the requested charter was ultimately granted.
Unfortunately, by 1891, the charter was returned. The number of members in the Cleveland area had dwindled to the point that continuing the chapter was not possible. Then, in 1912 meetings were once again taking place with close to 38 Delta Gammas living in the vicinity. Today, there are two Cleveland alumnae chapters, Cleveland East and Cleveland West Shore. This article, published in the Cleveland Press in 1968, details some of the remarkable history of the first alumnae chapter. Though it does contain one error, suggesting Delta Gamma was founded in 1883 instead of 1873.
From the Archives: Lewis School Door
Sometimes, the most seemingly mundane, everyday object can have an extraordinary history and symbolism. This is the case with this door from the Lewis School. Founded in the mid-1850s by Mrs. C.E. Lewis in Oxford, Mississippi, it went through several name changes over the years. Similar schools for young women, called female seminaries, existed throughout the country, with an estimated 3,000 operating in 1850. They were very often the only option a woman had to receive a formal education. Such institutions were only accessible to a small portion of women. The Lewis School, like other schools for girls at the time, would have focused on teaching their students “lady-like” subjects such as the arts and classical literature with little math or science.
When the Founders went away to school in 1873, they were virtually completely cut off from their family and friends back home. The closest train station to their hometown Kosciusko was 16 miles away in Durant, and Oxford was another 100 miles away. Roads at the time could be rough and hazardous, and there was no quick, easy way to travel back home. Walking through the door, the school was a metaphorical portal into a new phase of their lives.
Less than ten years later, the nearby University of Mississippi began admitting women. The Lewis School was able to continue for several years, but like other female seminaries, they could not survive in the face of coeducation becoming more common. Before the building was torn down, alumnae of Psi-Lewis rescued several pieces of the structure, including this door. Its survival, and the survival of the other Lewis School artifacts, is remarkable. Kept in Frances Lewis Stevenson Archives at Executive Offices, it is one of our oldest artifacts.
From the Archives: The First Delta Gamma Songbook
First Songbook Cover
Music and songs have been a part of the history of Delta Gamma from its very early days. The publication of the first Delta Gamma songbook came after several years of discussion and frequent changes in who was responsible for its compilation and publication. While some of this early history is murky much of it can be traced through the Convention minutes. The first mention in the minutes of Delta Gamma songs came at the 1883 Convention (the second Convention ever held). Dora Zimmerman, Alpha-Mount Union suggested “a committee be appointed in regard to having more songs added to our list of DG music.” At the 1885 Convention Mary Gladwin, Eta-Akron made a motion to appoint Theta II-Adelbert to compile material for a Delta Gamma songbook “to be brought forward at the next Convention.”
Song from the First DG Songbook
At that next Convention in 1888, some traction was finally made. The Convention minutes state, “On motion, the compilation of the Song Book was left with Zeta chapter subject to correction and revision by the Grand chapter and the alumnae of Theta chapter.” This alumnae chapter, the very first in Delta Gamma’s history was formed after Adelbert College barred women from attending. This likely explains the responsibility for the songbook being transferred to Zeta-Albion. Later that year the first Delta Gamma songbook was finally published.
Unfortunately, this first effort did not leave a positive impression. Containing only nine songs it was referred to as a “pathetic little pamphlet.” Just a year later at the 1889 Convention, the songbook committee was at work attempting to create a new version but were struggling to find enough songs, “Miss Osborne, Zeta chapter reports that only 25 songs suitable for publication had been received.” The second version would finally be published in 1895. There have been nine Delta Gamma songbooks published over the organization’s history, the current version contains over 80 songs.
Note: the history of the Theta chapter of Delta Gamma (Theta-Indiana: 1898-Present; Theta I-Fairmont: closed 1880; Theta II-Adelbert: 1883-1888).
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Jennifer Magro Algarotti, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Communications, Delta Gamma Foundation, jennifer.magro.algarotti@deltagamma.org
Columbus, Ohio [July 25, 2022] — Delta Gamma Foundation announces the launch of the public phase of its first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign. The public phase of Anchoring the Future: The Campaign for Delta Gamma coincides with Delta Gamma’s Sesquicentennial Biennium, starting in July 2022 and concluding in June 2024 and in partnership with the Delta Gamma Fraternity, to celebrate 150 years of the Do Good Sisterhood.
During Delta Gamma’s 70th Biennial Convention from June 23-26 in Philadelphia, PA, Anchoring the Future was launched with much excitement to both in-person and virtual attendees. During Convention’s opening banquet, it was revealed that the Foundation had been raising funds for the Campaign quietly since 2018 and that over $39 million had already been committed by individual donors, alumnae groups and collegiate chapters.
Campaign Co-Chairs, Delta Gamma members Shaun Young and Laurie Kight, were also introduced, along with the Campaign goal of $50 million. Laurie shares: “For 150 years Delta Gamma has enriched the lives of its members and so many others through our motto to do good. Shaun and I are honored to help lead Anchoring the Future, as we work to ensure that Delta Gamma’s ideals of friendship, scholarship, service and assistance will grow and thrive for the next generation.”
Anchoring the Future is built around four Campaign Pillars that will help ensure the success of Delta Gamma for generations to come: Training and Programming, to grow educational and leadership opportunities for members; Individual Member Support, to increase support for members based on financial need or academic achievement;
Heartfelt Giving and Philanthropy, to expand our philanthropic commitments, including Delta Gamma’s philanthropy Service for Sight; and Capital Initiatives, to enhance our physical facilities to keep all members connected for good.
The $39 million raised thus far includes the Foundation’s largest single gift ever received, an outright gift of $5.5 million in unrestricted funds from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Leslie Martin, Foundation Executive Director, reflects on the impact of this gift: “A gift of this magnitude is transformational for Delta Gamma, making a reality of what was once just a dream. This incredible donation will be used to create sustained funding for programs that invest in our members as well as those we advocate for through Service for Sight. For these funds to have been given as an unrestricted gift is a deep compliment and a sincere sign of trust that the Delta Gamma Foundation will be an outstanding steward of this investment. The donor shared that Delta Gamma has deeply impacted their life and this was an opportunity to give back just a part of what Delta Gamma has given to them.”
View the press release here.
About Delta Gamma Foundation: Incorporated in 1951, the Delta Gamma Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formed as a complement to the Delta Gamma Fraternity, creating a vehicle for members to promote the educational interests and social responsibility referenced in Article II of the Fraternity Constitution. The Delta Gamma Foundation fosters lifetime enrichment for members, promotes Service for Sight and partners with the Fraternity to ensure the future of our sisterhood.
