Let’s Spell it Together: S-E-S-Q-U-I-C-E-N-T-E-N-N-I-A-L
By Staige Davis Hodges, Beta Theta-Duke
Since 1881, Delta Gammas have gathered at Convention with the purpose of accomplishing the business of the Fraternity and shaping its future direction. Sigma-Northwestern collegians summarized their 1902 Convention attendance aptly: “Perhaps the best lesson that Convention teaches us all ... is to work not only for the good of our individual chapters but also for the good of our Fraternity as a whole.” Days and evenings are punctuated by banquets, speeches, the sweet melody of Delta Gamma songs and reveling in sisterhood.
Convention has been held every two years, for the most part, since 1881 when only two chapters met: Psi I-Lewis School and Eta-Buchtel (Akron). Convention was deferred in 1917 due to World War I, as President Woodrow Wilson requested organizations contemplating conventions “abandon them for patriotic reasons” to save the expense and decrease railroad congestion. The $1,000 of the unused Convention fund was appropriated for war relief work. Convention would only be canceled one other time: in 1944 due to World War II.
The goal for the Fiftieth Anniversary Convention in Estes Park, Colorado, in 1924, was to “make it be the biggest and the best Convention we have ever had.” The Fraternity developed a scholarship “Birthday Fund,” which reached over $57,000, well beyond the aforethought-lofty goal of $50,000.
In 1948, the Diamond Jubilee Convention was held in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Each chapter provided a doll – a “Dream Girl” dressed in the fashion of the era in which the chapter was chartered. Attendees could tour the nearby L. G. Balfour Company to see how anchor badges were made.
Our grand Centennial was celebrated at the 1972 Convention in Los Angeles, California. Attendance was so high, that collegiate visitors were provided rooms at the local Alpha Nu-USC and Alpha Sigma-UCLA chapter houses and then bussed to and from Convention daily. Each collegiate chapter designed and made a fabric quilt square to create a commemorative centennial quilt, which now hangs in the Archives. Vicki Vannoy Nixon, Gamma Xi-Texas Tech, was at her first (of many) Conventions. She recalls, “One of the most memorable moments was when a bus loaded with Delta Gammas leaving the Convention suddenly realized that the band The Monkees ... was staying at the hotel. They walked by our bus to hoots and hollers and DGs calling out the names of their favorite artist!” Vicki, who later went on to serve on Council, is seated at the table at the front left in the banquet photo. She says about Council members she met, “I set my goal to be on Council one day after being exposed to these women. I guess it worked!”
By 1998, a Convention planner was on staff at Executive Offices to work with the host city and alumnae committee. Atlanta, Georgia, provided a hospitable welcome for the 125th.
Now the word that no one can easily pronounce: sesquicentennial. Since 2019, committees have been working on specially branded merchandise, local celebratory events, a commemorative 150th badge and a pictorial history book. Special events include Officer Training Seminar (OTS) in Memphis, Tennessee in June 2023, open to everyone, with a day trip to Oxford to walk in the Founders’ steps.
Interested in learning more about Delta Gamma's history? Check out our sesquicentennial anniversary pictorial history book, Celebrating 150 Years of Delta Gamma, 1873-2023. This 96-page limited edition pays homage to our history, including historical vignettes and images, many of which have never been seen before, curated into a masterful, comprehensive treasure trove. Purchase yours here!
For Immediate Release:
Fraternity Contact: Mallory Borino, Director of Marketing and Communications, media@deltagamma.org
Foundation Contact: Jen Magro Algarotti, Director of Strategic Communications, fdncomms@deltagamma.org
Columbus, Ohio [July 5, 2022] – Delta Gamma Fraternity and Delta Gamma Foundation are pleased to announce the 2022-2024 Fraternity Council and Foundation Board of Trustees.
Elected and installed at the 70th Biennial Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Delta Gamma Fraternity announces the following members of the Fraternity Council.
2022-2024 Delta Gamma Fraternity Council members pictured left-to-right: Stephanie Latza Brown, Dr. Amy R. Ayres, Molly Peirano; Corey Bennett Williams, Susan Meyer Kornegay, Joanna Rosenow Shook, Vanessa Milara Alzate.
Fraternity President Dr. Amy R. Ayres, Alpha Iota-Oklahoma
Council Trustee: Collegians Joanna Rosenow Shook, Alpha Upsilon-Southern Methodist
Council Trustee: Alumnae Vanessa Milara Alzate, Epsilon Psi-Rutgers
Council Trustee: Fraternity Programming Molly Peirano, Epsilon-Ohio State
Council Trustee: Membership Stephanie Latza Brown, Delta Pi-Southern Mississippi
Council Trustee: Communications Corey Bennett Williams, Zeta Phi-Harvard
Fraternity Treasurer Susan Meyer Kornegay, Eta-Akron
“On behalf of the newly-elected Fraternity Council, we are eager to help lead Delta Gamma into the next biennium as we honor our past, while boldly looking forward,” said Fraternity President Dr. Amy Ayres, Alpha Iota-Oklahoma. “We place great value on the impact of partnerships and collaboration, fully recognizing that we are better when we expand our circle.”
The Delta Gamma Foundation elected two new Trustees to serve on the Board at the Foundation Annual Meeting, held during Delta Gamma's 70th Biennial Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2022-2023 Delta Gamma Foundation Board of Trustees pictured left-to-right: Molly Peirano, Jennifer Stuart Ragusa, Dr. Amy R. Ayres, Danielle Consentino D’Arcy; Catherine (Kim) Schmoker Hunnewell, Susan Meyer Kornegay, Joan Workman Newman, Lynne Thieme, Jill Elizabeth Roshto.
Danielle Consentino D’Arcy, Gamma Pi-Roanoke, and Jill Elizabeth Roshto, Gamma Zeta-Louisiana State, have been elected by the Foundation voting members to serve as Trustees for the 2022-2025 term.
Jennifer Stuart Ragusa, Zeta Lambda-UC Riverside, the newly elected Delta Gamma Foundation Board of Trustees Chairman, said: “We are excited to welcome our newly elected trustees as well as our new council partners. We look forward to an inspirational year ahead of us. Jill joins us with an extensive background in foundation work and her knowledge and experience will be greatly appreciated. Danielle’s comprehensive understanding of finance and strategy will complement the board nicely. As we move into our sesquicentennial celebration and kick off our first comprehensive campaign ever, the BOT is dedicated to creating a lasting, positive impact that upholds the mission and vision of our Foundation.”
D’Arcy and Roshto were elected and took their Oath of Office on June 24, 2022. Joan Workman Newman, Gamma-UC Berkeley, will continue to serve as Treasurer and Lynne C. Thieme, Beta Xi-Michigan State will continue to serve as Secretary. Catherine (Kim) Schmoker Hunnewell, Alpha Upsilon-Southern Methodist continues her term as Trustee.
Six elected members and three ex-officio members who serve concurrently in the roles of Delta Gamma Fraternity President, Fraternity Treasurer and Council Trustee: Fraternity Programming serve on the Foundation Board of Trustees to ensure the fulfillment of its philanthropic mission.
To learn more about the Delta Gamma Fraternity Council and Delta Gamma Foundation Board of Trustees, click here.
About Delta Gamma: Delta Gamma Fraternity was founded in 1873 at the 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, 150 collegiate chapters and more than 190 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) charitable organization formed as a complement to the Delta Gamma Fraternity. 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 through three areas of support: Individual Member Support, Training and Programming, and Delta Gamma’s philanthropy, Service for Sight.
2022 Convention Awards
On Saturday, June 25 2022, Delta Gamma Fraternity presented and celebrated the 2022 Convention Award winners. Below you will find a description of each award and the award recipients.
George Banta Award
Recognizing collegiate chapters that have been established for between two and five years, the George Banta Award honors a young chapter that is exceptional in most areas of chapter life. The award is named in honor of George Banta, who helped expand our Fraternity.
Winner: Gamma Delta-Montana State
Barbara Griswold Laederach Recruitment Award
This award recognizes excellence in all aspects of collegiate recruitment during the current biennium. To qualify for this award, a chapter must achieve perfect scores in the membership section of the Patricia Peterson Danielson (PPD) Award for both years of the biennium. The award is named in honor of former Fraternity Vice President: Membership and National Panhellenic Conference Delegate, Barbara Griswold Laederach, Lambda-Minnesota.
Second Runner-Up: Epsilon Epsilon-Tennessee Tech
First Runner-Up: Gamma Theta-Florida
Winner: Alpha Sigma-UCLA
Alumnae Membership Development Award
This award recognizes the alumnae chapter whose goals incorporate strategic and successful programming techniques to increase membership, resulting in a larger percentage of local dues-paying members.
Runner-Up: Louisville alumnae chapter
Winner: Newport-South Coast alumnae chapter
Barbara Nussa Boersma Outstanding Technology Award
This award pays tribute to Barbara Nussa Boersma, Alpha Tau-Butler, who most notably brought Delta Gamma into the information age. This award recognizes both an alumnae and collegiate chapter for the effective use of technology to impact or meet a chapter goal or objective within the biennium. Technology/media may include, but is not limited to social media, video, website, email, etc.
Alumnae Runner-Up: Phoenix alumnae chapter
Alumnae Winner: Atlanta alumnae chapter
Collegiate Winner: Alpha Chi-Pennsylvania State
The "Maggie" Newsletter Award
These awards recognize communications achievement for newsletter communications, either electronic or traditional, for one collegiate and one alumnae chapter. The “Maggie” is named for former ANCHORA Editor and Executive Director Margaret Hess Watkins, Alpha Xi-West Virginia.
Alumnae Winner: Tampa alumnae chapter
Collegiate Winner: Eta Gamma-Texas A&M
Outstanding House Corporation Award
This award recognizes the house corporation that follows its bylaws by demonstrating excellence in communication, budgeting and reporting; developing a positive relationship with the collegiate chapter; and working toward long-range goals.
House Corp. Managed Winner: Delta Iota-Georgia
University Managed Winner: Delta Psi-Southern Mississippi
Frankie Ladley Wakefield Parnassus Award
This award is presented to the collegiate chapter that manifested the highest qualities of intellectual curiosity and integrity during the years between Conventions. It also takes into consideration timeliness in reporting and Foundation service, both of which were important to Frankie Wakefield, Alpha Eta-Whitman, for whom this award is named.
Runner-Up: Gamma Zeta-Louisiana State
Runner-Up: Gamma Upsilon-Wichita State
Winner: Alpha Lambda-Drake
Delta Eta – California State, Sacramento Founders Award
This award recognizes collegiate chapters in four categories (determined by average chapter size during the biennium) that reach levels of excellence in meeting the objectives of the Fraternity as outlined in Article II of the Fraternity Constitution: to foster high ideals of friendship among women of all ages; 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.
Division 1 Runner-Up: Eta Xi-Texas, Tyler
Division 1 Winner: Eta Eta-Spring Hill
Division 2 Runner-Up: Gamma Upsilon-Wichita State
Division 2 Winner: Epsilon Epsilon-Tennessee Tech
Division 3 Runner-Up: Kappa-Nebraska
Division 3 Winner: Eta Upsilon-Drexel
Division 4 Runner-Up: Eta Gamma-Texas A&M
Division 4 Winner: Delta Sigma-Auburn
Outstanding Alumnae Programming Award
This award recognizes programming that best exemplifies the Delta Gamma Philosophy. Chapters considered for the award submitted detailed plans about their overall programming goals, events and results.
Division 1 Runner-Up: New York City alumnae chapter
Division 1 Winner: Cleveland East alumnae chapter
Division 2 Runner-Up: Tampa alumnae chapter
Division 2 Winner: South Orange County alumnae chapter
Division 3 Runner-Up: Houston alumnae chapter
Division 3 Winner: Portland Suburban alumnae chapter
Roberta Abernethy Award
Selected by the Executive Offices staff, the recipient of this award is the collegiate chapter that demonstrates in spirit and in deed the qualities of responsibility, cooperation, dependability and initiative. It is named for Delta Gamma’s first Executive Secretary.
Winner: Beta Beta-Alberta
Collumnae Award
This award recognizes the alumnae chapter whose relationship with a collegiate chapter displays a quality of communication and interaction of value to both groups; involves a high percentage of the collegiate and alumnae members; and accomplishes the goals set forth by both groups.
Local Runner-Up: Baton Rough alumnae chapter
Local Winner: Pittsburgh South Hills alumnae chapter
Remote Runner-Up: South Orange County alumnae chapter
Remote Winner: Northern Colorado alumnae chapter
Outstanding Alumnae Chapter Award
Judged in three categories determined by the average number of local dues-paying members during the biennium, this award is presented to s that are outstanding in all areas of endeavor and exemplify the living applications of the Delta Gamma Philosophy. The success of an is judged based on the entire biennium.
Division 1 Runner-Up: Columbus alumnae chapter
Division 1 Winner: Pittsburgh South Hills alumnae chapter
Division 2 Runner-Up: South Bay alumnae chapter
Division 2 Winner: Newport South Coast alumnae chapter
Division 3 Runner-Up: Dallas alumnae chapter
Division 3 Winner: Atlanta alumnae chapter
Outstanding Collegiate Chapter Award
To be considered for this award, a chapter must receive the Patricia Peterson Danielson Award both years of the biennium. Judged in three categories determined by average chapter size during the biennium, these chapters demonstrate excellence in every area of chapter life.
Division 1 Runner-Up: Eta Eta-Spring Hill
Division 1 Winner: Eta-Akron
Division 2 Runner-Up: Eta Alpha-Pepperdine
Division 2 Winner: Alpha Lambda-Drake
Division 3 Runner-Up: Beta Sigma-Maryland
Division 3 Winner: Eta Theta-Saint Louis
Division 4 Runner-Up: Beta Psi-Alabama
Division 4 Winner: Gamma Phi-Arizona State
Patricia Peterson Danielson Award
This award recognizes collegiate chapters that demonstrate a level of excellence in all areas of chapter operations and programming. Chapters submit an application for evaluation of criteria in our 12 Fraternity Standards and are then encouraged to establish goals based on the criteria. The award is named in honor of former Council member Patricia Peterson Danielson, Theta-Indiana.
Alumnae Excellence
The Alumnae Excellence recognition is designed to measure all alumnae groups in creating programming and calendar events while also achieving alumnae group standard operating criteria. Its purpose is to encourage alumnae groups to develop programming that focuses on fun, friendship, sisterhood and “Doing Good” while increasing membership participation and enhancing Delta Gamma awareness.
Excellence in Operations for house corporations
The Fraternity’s Annual Excellence in Operations Award for House Corporations is designed to acknowledge that a collegiate chapter’s house corporation fulfills a significant responsibility: ensuring the safety and stability of a collegiate chapter’s housing, property, employees, finances and operations. The constancy of these responsibilities does not lessen, but rather underscores how essential a watchful house corporation is to the wellbeing of a collegiate chapter. Every house corporation is eligible for award consideration
Cable Award
The Cable Award recognizes an alumna for personal devotion and continued service to the Fraternity. Each recipient has demonstrated, through years of serving Delta Gamma, unusual loyalty far beyond normal participation.
Loyalty Award
The Loyalty Award bestows an extraordinary honor upon the alumna who exhibits a lifetime of devotion to the Fraternity at the international, regional or local level. The recipient must first receive the Cable Award, and then demonstrate a minimum of 10 years additional service in advancing the Delta Gamma Philosophy.
Oxford Award
The Oxford Award recognizes the alumna who exemplifies the Delta Gamma precept of service to her community and who, through the years, devotes her talents to improve the quality of life of those around her.
Shield Award
The Shield Award recognizes the alumna who has achieved unique and noteworthy distinctions through leadership and verifiable accomplishments in her chosen fields of expertise. The chosen fields may include business and professional, the arts, education, civic, nonprofit or religious affairs.
Anchor Award
The Anchor Award recognizes an alumna whose extensive, influential and noteworthy achievements spread across the entire Fraternity and help advance the Delta Gamma philosophy. Such an alumna is a mainstay of the Fraternity and provides reliable support from which all members benefit. To be considered for recognition, an alumna must be a Cable Award recipient and her Fraternity service and/or achievements must extend beyond the local level and must demonstrate a unique and lasting impact on every member of the Fraternity.
The Order of The Delta Gamma Rose
The Order of the Delta Gamma Rose is the highest award presented by the Fraternity, honoring alumnae who have made distinguished contributions to their nation and/or the world. Recipients are renowned in their chosen fields, and MUST have received (inter)national recognition because of their individual efforts and talents.
For the first 69 years of its history, Delta Gamma Fraternity was a completely volunteer-run organization. All administrative work from membership records to managing ANCHORA subscriptions was done out of the personal homes of members. One of the longest tenures was held by Leulah Judson Hawley, Lambda-Minnesota. She served from 1915 to 1934 as the Secretary-Editor and is credited with making the earliest effort to centralize recording keeping and support services of the organization. All this work was done out of her own home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By 1942, it was clear that Delta Gamma needed permanent office space. The first paid staff member, Roberta Abernethy, Epsilon-Ohio State, was hired under the titled Executive Secretary. That same year she and her one assistant, Jean Pierce Dredge, Epsilon-Ohio State, opened the Delta Gamma Central Office in two rented rooms in the American Insurance Union Citadel (now the LeVeque Tower) located in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The office would move twice ending with its current location in a suburb of Columbus. 2022 marks 80 years of Delta Gamma having a dedicated office. This timeline weaves through the history of Executive Offices, the spaces it has occupied, and just a few of the people who have made the work accomplished there possible.
1873: Anna Boyd, Mary Comfort and Eva Webb form the Delta Gamma Fraternity while attending the Lewis School in Oxford, Mississippi.
1915: Leulah Judson Hawley, Lambda-Minnesota served as Secretary-Editor until her passing in 1934. Her home in Minneapolis, for all intents and purposes, served as a “centralized office” for the fraternity. During her tenure membership reaches 9,000.
1924: Fraternity President Nancy Brown Woolett, Phi-Colorado urged that a permanent headquarters be established. In her address to Convention, she talked at length about this issue stating, “I hope we may have time for the consideration formally or informally, on the subject of a National Centralized office. A place where all equipment may be installed, all files kept, and where we may have the services of a full-time secretary.” Going on to note the difficulties in doing such work out of the homes of volunteers she stated, “Many of our sister fraternities have met this problem by establishing a more or less permanent office.”
1942: The Convention body voted to establish a Central Office. Roberta Abernethy, Epsilon-Ohio State was hired as the first paid staff member. With her assistant, Jean Peirce Dredge, Epsilon-Ohio State, they opened the Delta Gamma Central Office in two rented rooms at 50 W. Broad Street. Delta Gamma was one of the last women’s Greek organizations to have a national headquarters.
1948: Third room is added to the Central Office due to increasing staff and workload.
1949: Publications department was added to the Central Office. Responsibilities included editing the ANCHORA which had up to this point been done out of the personal home of the editor. This was the precursor of today's marketing and communications department.
1951: Delta Gamma Foundation is incorporated in Ohio.
1955: The number of staff and workload increased significantly, and larger office space was needed. Funding had begun to construct a headquarters, in the interim the Central Office moved to 1820 Northwest Boulevard.
1961: Ground was broken for the construction of the new Delta Gamma headquarters at the corner of Zollinger Road and Riverside Drive. Staff were able to utilize the space by Thanksgiving weekend. When construction was completed, Delta Gamma became the first women’s fraternity to build its own headquarters.
1962: Delta Gamma Executive Offices was dedicated on March 10, with more than 750 people in attendance. Only the first floor was occupied by staff. The second floor was leased to various businesses to help pay off the mortgage.
1965 - Portions of the second floor began to be occupied by staff. Part of this space became the archive, managed by Frances Lewis Stevenson, Zeta-Albion. This same year, the renters of the small house on the lot to the south of the main building vacated and Council decided to create a multi-use space for meetings, field secretary trainings and to accommodate overnight guests. It was dubbed the Anchor In.
1972 - Less than 10 years after the building dedication the mortgage was completely paid off. In celebration, a mortgage burning was held. This same year, a second phone line was added to Executive Offices and Roberta Abernethy retired.
1973: A ship anchor, on loan from the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Curator Branch, was placed on property where it has remained to this day.
1978: The last of renters left Executive Offices and staff now occupied the entire building. The archive space was renamed The Frances Lewis Stevenson Archives.
1981: A large-scale redecoration project is undertaken. It included repainting walls, new carpeting and furniture pieces being brought in, as well as work to reupholstering some pieces.
1982: Executive Offices entered the computer age with this Prime 2250 minicomputer and office printer.
1985: Anchor Trader, an in-house product shop, opened occupying much of the basement portion of Executive Offices. It would close in 2007.
1990: The tremendous growth of Delta Gamma meant that the original building was now too small. This led to Project 90, an addition to Executive Offices that would add space for the Foundation. Anchor In was torn down to make way for this expansion.
1991: Construction is completed and named The Dorothy Garrett Martin Center. This was in honor of Dorothy Martin, Eta-Akron; and her husband Paul a Phi Delta Theta who had donated the lead gift to build the center. Dedicated on June 23, Delta Gamma became the first women’s fraternity to build a facility dedicated to serving the philanthropic activities of its Foundation.
1995: From 1986 – to 1995 the Delta Gamma Foundation sponsored “The Art of the Eye” exhibit. This visual exhibit featured works of artists with vision impairments. Several pieces were brought in to adorn Executive Offices included the large piece seen in these photos, “Untitled, 1985” by Jennifer Casey.
2011: Beginning in 2007 renovations were done throughout Executive Offices.
2015: The Frances Lewis Stevenson Archives was renovated. New exhibit cases were added in 2017 to display more artifacts.
2022: From the two rented rooms in downtown Columbus to the 16,500 square foot building today, the story of the Delta Gamma Executive Offices reflects the hard work and dedication of countless members.
Staige Davis Hodges, Beta Theta-Duke
Researching stories and gathering images for the sesquicentennial pictorial history, Celebrating 150 Years of Delta Gamma, was fascinating and exhilarating. Little did my co-chair, Maureen McCulloh Hollmeyer, Gamma Rho-Wittenberg, or I know what we would discover. We didn’t even know what we were missing.
Beautiful, inspiring discoveries included the number of highly educated, motivated members. Many were pioneers in their fields, trailblazers who pursued higher levels of education as doctors, scientists or professors. Helen (Ella) Florence Tyler Whiteley, Phi-Colorado, pictured right, was the first female to earn a degree at the University of Colorado, the only woman out of a class of six. She and her sister, Lillian Tyler Ward, helped found Phi chapter, and both were initiated in 1886. Their father, Clinton Tyler, helped establish the university. Fellow Phi sister Mary Rippon was the first female professor at the University of Colorado, and one of the first women to serve as a university professor in the United States.
One of the most fun parts of the book journey – and it was a journey – was meeting a whole cast of characters, and bringing their stories to life. When a committee member would unearth (no pun intended) a sister, story or photo (those were the most magical) from one of our earliest chapters, we found ourselves plunged back suddenly to the 1870s and 1880s. We became sorority time travelers. Saying it out loud sounds admittedly odd, but that is exactly what our committee became.
One of the most memorable moments was getting an email, and then a text, and quite possibly a phone call (it’s all a bit of a blur, as it happened so fast), from committee member Bunny Wilson Shackelford, Delta Psi-Baylor, when she hit the motherlode. Bunny loved to focus on our earliest chapters, most of which have little to no information. Some chapter rosters only had a handful of members before the chapter closed. Bunny was immersed in Upsilon II-St. Lawrence, active from 1884-1887. There were 12 initiates. We had nothing for the chapter more than an old photograph of the campus in 1887.
Bunny contacted the St. Lawrence University archivist and asked about information on our Delta Gamma chapter from the 1880s. He was perplexed, thinking about our Gamma Omega chapter at St. Lawrence from the 1960s, and replied, “There was not a Delta Gamma chapter here in the 1880s.” Without skipping a beat, Bunny then shared the names of our 12 members gleefully with him. He became a man on a mission. His interns began going through archival boxes. And more boxes. They found ten. Almost the entire roster.
It was imperative we provide Upsilon II with a composite. Merging all the old cabinet card photos into one image gave Upsilon II its first and only composite – 135 years late. In some of their portraits, you can see large, jeweled badges, one with an ornate Upsilon chapter guard pin. We were mesmerized, and so grateful to the St. Lawrence archivist.
If I had a superpower, it would definitely be time travel.
Interested in learning more about Delta Gamma's history? Check out our sesquicentennial anniversary pictorial history book, Celebrating 150 Years of Delta Gamma, 1873-2023. This 96-page limited edition pays homage to our history, including historical vignettes and images, many of which have never been seen before, curated into a masterful, comprehensive treasure trove. Purchase yours here!
By Staige Davis Hodges, Beta Theta-Duke
Delta Gamma has a Fraternity seal. An official seal. An embossed-paper-kind-of-seal, not the kind with flippers. Our seal has gone through numerous iterations during significant events or times in our history, yet many were incorrect due to various turns of events and mistakes which could be seen as a comedy of errors worthy of William Shakespeare himself. From 1877 until 2022, there are seven variations on the seal, many with mistaken founding dates or lettering. The seal appears on chapter charters and other official documents of the Fraternity, so it is important to get our insignia accurate.
To preface this, let it be known that the official Delta Gamma seal created for the Sesquicentennial is indeed correct, and for that we are mighty proud and grateful!
The first Delta Gamma seal appears on the 1877 Constitution and is impressed on the earliest chapter charters. The Greek letter Ψ at the base of the laurel wreath is a nod to Lewis School. The meaning of the letters “C a P” has been lost to time.
Council approved and saw to the development of the seal by a Chicago firm of the design submitted by a Xi-Michigan chapter committee appointed at the 1899 Convention. We have Xi members Katharine Hine and Anna Barnard to thank for the design, which Clara Mulliken, Kappa-Nebraska, presented at the 1903 Convention for official recognition. She moved that the description of the seal be placed in the Fraternity Constitution, which carried, but this was not done until 1962. Interestingly, the 1905 Convention treasurer’s report lists $10.50 as the cost of the seal, and $3.00 for the hand press. For all of you economic inflation types, that is approximately $345/$99 today!
The 1904 version of the seal noted the founding date as 1872, which was the first in the series of over a century of errors. The outer Greek words of the seal read “The Great Seal of Delta Gamma.” The inner Greek words of the seal read “Character and Unity.” Keep your eyes on the letters H in the inner circle.
Sometime in the mid-1900s, the “H” letters in the inner circle were misread as “M” and misprinted, leading to the publication of this seal in the 1945 History and subsequent Constitutions. Additionally, our founding jumped curiously by two years.
A date-corrected seal appeared in 1966, yet the inner words still were incorrect with the letter “M.” And then, our Centennial celebration was upon us, starting in 1971. This special Centennial seal was mass-printed on the cover of the 1971 ANCHORA. The erroneous letter “M” lived on, but was corrected after the publication.
This brings us to the Sesquicentennial. We have seen that, in the years since the Centennial, incorrect versions still appeared, so we knew we needed to get the sesquicentennial seal back to “Character and Unity” as opposed to some Greek gibberish. In planning sesquicentennial special events and commemorative items, the “M vs. H” was at the forefront of our minds. The committee developed a seal worthy of our Founders and the monumental anniversary, as well as the character and unity of our beloved Delta Gamma. Long live the letter H for many reasons.
Interested in learning more about Delta Gamma's history? Check out our sesquicentennial anniversary pictorial history book, Celebrating 150 Years of Delta Gamma, 1873-2023. This 96-page limited edition pays homage to our history, including historical vignettes and images, many of which have never been seen before, curated into a masterful, comprehensive treasure trove. Purchase yours here!
