History

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and largest academic honor society, was founded on Dec. 5, 1776 by five students at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. It is the first college society to bear a Greek letter name and is devoted to the pursuit of liberal education and intellectual fellowship. Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) stands for Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης in Greek (PhilosAriophia Biou Cybernētēs in Latin letters), which means "Love of learning is the guide of life," the motto of the Society.

In its early years, Phi Beta Kappa introduced the essential characteristics of Greek societies: an oath of secrecy (discarded in 1831), a badge, mottoes in Latin and Greek, a code of laws, an elaborate initiation, a seal, and a special handshake.

The original Phi Beta Kappa Society was only active for a few years because the approach of the British Army under General Cornwallis forced the College of William & Mary to close. But its members prepared charters for branches at two other institutions: Yale and Harvard. These charters created Alpha of Connecticut at Yale in 1780 and Alpha of Massachusetts at Harvard in 1781. This began the tradition of designating each state's chapter with a letter from the Greek alphabet to indicate where it fits chronologically in that state's chapters. These chapters largely determined the permanent character of Phi Beta Kappa and shaped its policy on the establishment of other new chapters.

The two New England branches preserved the essential qualities of the Virginia experience, adopting changes in procedure to suit local conditions. Shortly before the end of the academic year, the members selected from the junior class a small group of outstanding students who, the following year, constituted the "immediate society." Later, faculty members who had been invited to join Phi Beta Kappa as undergraduates would assume this role, and most of a chapter's new members would be initiated as seniors.

Fifty years after the Society's move into New England, only four additional chapters existed: Alpha of New Hampshire at Dartmouth in 1787; Alpha of New York at Union in 1817; Alpha of Maine at Bowdoin in 1825; and Alpha of Rhode Island at Brown in 1830. Fifteen more chapters were established in the next three decades. In 1883 the National Council of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa was founded, which provided a unified organization for the Society. By that time, 25 chapters had been chartered, although not all were active, and about 14,000 members had been elected.

Alpha of Vermont, at the University of Vermont, admitted the first women members in 1875. In 1876, Gamma of Connecticut at Wesleyan University elected four women. A few years later, when a general constitution and bylaws were adopted, the right of women to membership was accepted without question. The first African-Americans were elected at Yale in 1874, and at the University of Vermont in 1877. The first Society chapters at historically black institutions were established at Howard and Fisk, both in 1953.

Since 1883, the number of chapters has increased from 25 to 290, and membership has grown accordingly. In 1900, when the first general catalogue was published, the living membership was about 10,500. Today it is more than 500,000. In 1988, the organization's name was changed to "The Phi Beta Kappa Society."

*The national history is mostly excerpted from the history given at the Phi Beta Kappa Society's website.