Delphic Fraternity History
A brief history
In 1871, a group of students and a teacher from the Brockport Normal School in New York relocated to Geneseo, N.Y. to assist in the opening of a new normal school and form the Delphic Society, which later became the Delphic Fraternity.
Roots in a literary society
The Delphic Fraternity can trace its history to Gamma Phi, a literary society formed around 1833 at Colgate University. Gamma Phi became the Adelphian Society which helped form the Delphic Society at the University of Rochester. That society influenced the founding of the Gamma Sigma Society at the Brockport Normal School and members of that organization founded the Delphic Society at Geneseo.
A statewide fraternity is formed
By the early 1900s, the fraternity founded in Geneseo, New York expanded to eight normal schools, seven in the state of New York (Geneseo, Oneonta, Jamaica, Cortland, New Paltz, Plattsburgh, & Potsdam) and one in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.
Short-lived national affiliation
In the early 1950s, the Zeta Chapter of Delphic, the last remaining active chapter of the statewide fraternity, became briefly affiliated with the national organization of Sigma Tau Gamma. The association officially ended in 1954 but the local chapter continued to use Sigma Tau Gamma letters well into the early 1970s.
The fraternity today
In 1987, the Zeta Chapter of Delphic at New Paltz was re-established as Delphic of Gamma Sigma Tau Fraternity. Today, the historic organization is represented by two undergraduate chapters at the University of Virginia and SUNY Delhi, three professional graduate chapters in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina, and two alumni chapters at SUNY New Paltz and Binghamton University.