Adelphia Sigma Nu Phi was founded in 1903 by students and faculty ofNational University School of Law inWashington, D.C.[3][4] Its founders wanted to create a Greek letter law fraternity for men that would be a modern version of the English Order of the Coif.[5][a] The fraternity was incorporated in the District of Columbia on February 12, 1903.[5] Its founders and incoporators were :[5][6][7]
Harry Hayward Allen
James A. Bailey
Charles F. Carusi
Eugene Carusi
Oliver Metzerott
Raymond W. Moulton
Fred R. Reisner
E. Richard Shipp
Sidney F. Smith
George L. Whitaker
Eugene Carusi was dean of the School of Law and Charles Carusi and Richard Shipp were faculty members.[7]
The purpose of Sigma Nu Phi was to improve legal education, promote professional ethics and culture, and establish a bond of brotherhood.[6] The fraternity selected a seal, insignia, and design for a ring in February 1903, entering these with theLibrarian of Congress.[8] Its membership was limited to students, alumni, and faculty of law schools.[4][7] The fraternity's member types or degrees were apprentice, sergeant, and magistrate.[5][8] Members of other fraternities were not eligible to join Sigma Nu Phi.[4]
Sometime after 1911, theAlpha chapter declined and went inactive. It was revived in February 1915 with the aid of faculty who were fraternity members.[12][13] New members were initiated into theAlpha chapter in March.[14][15] Members and alumni celebrated the chapter's revival at a function held in April 1915.[16][13]
Sigma Nu Phi was one of the chartering fraternities of theProfessional Interfraternity Conference in 1928 and its president Major Jarvis Butler served as its first president.[21]
In 1953, the fraternity had 24 chapters.[22] However, there were only five active chapters in 1963.[5] Sigma Nu Phi merged intoDelta Theta Phi (ΔΘΦ) in 1989.[1] Delta Theta Phi accepted all Sigma Nu Phi members and took over publishingThe Adelphia Law Journal.[1][23]
Sigma Nu Phi's colors were purple and gold.[5][24] Its banner was made of purple and old rose silk.[8] Its flower was the white carnation.[5][24] Its jewels were the sapphire and the diamond.[8] Its symbols were the axe, the key, and the owl.
The Sigma Nu Phi crest includes a cluster of three carnations, an Arabian lamp, an open book, and a crossed battle axe and key, flanked on both sides by an owl and surrounded by a legal scroll.[24] The Sigma Nu Phi coat of arms was designed by Balfour and Company and adopted by the fraternity in 1921.[25] It incorporated the symbols of the fraternity's great seal.[25]
When it was first established, Sigma Nu Phi members wore a ring instead of a badge.[8] It was a gold signet ring, featuring the fraternity's crest with an owl on either side.[8] The ring had three sapphires, representing the three classes or degrees of members, and four diamonds, representing the fraternity's four declarations.[8] A similar watch seal was also designed.[8]
Members wore purple gowns, based on judicial robes, with an old rose and gold girdle.[8] The right sleeve was decorated with the fraternity's crest and the left sleeve indicated the wearer's membership degree.[8]
The fraternity's badge was a circle of purple enamel with the Greek lettersΣΝΦ above a lamp; it was encircled by pearls and featured an owl perched on an open book at the top of the circle.[5] Before 1921, some chapters had a pin or guard that consisted of its Greek letter, surrounded in pearls, that was worn attached to the badge.[26] However, the fraternity stated that these were forbidden in November 1921.[26] A variant without the pearls was issued by the fraternity in 1934.[5]
The Sigma Nu Phi pledge button was a gold owl that had jeweled eyes that was worn on the left lapel.[5][27] Pledge pins were loaned to pledges and returned to the chapter after the brother's initiation.[27]In addition, the fraternity had a recognition button that was a replica of its coat of arms.[5] It also issued a scholarship key to the members of each chapter with the highest grade point average in their class.[5]
In March 1915, theAlpha chapter's initiation included marching the initiates downH Street toFourteenth Street, and ontoNew York Avenue in what one newspaper called "a parade in grotesque" costumes".[14][15] The initiation also included a slapstick, a seizer bottle, and an electric battery.[14]
The fraternity started publishing a newspaper,The Declaration, in late February 1903.[8] In 1916, Sigma Nu Phi started publishingThe Owl magazine quarterly.[5] It also publishedThe Adelphia on an irregular basis starting in 1925; in 1981, it becameThe Adelphia Law Journal, an authoritatively recognized law review.[23][5] The fraternity also published a seven members directories between 1916 and 1956.[5]
The originalAlpha chapter house was locatied at 1016 Thirteenth Street Northwest.[10][2] It was built in the 1870s forDavid Kellogg Cartter, formerchief justice of theSupreme Court of the District of Columbia, and was later the home of SenatorWilliam Alexander Harris.[11][28] It was three blocks from the National Law School buidilng.[10] Its lower level of the chapter house was decorted with hand-carved black walnut and included reading rooms, clubrooms, and space for programs and social events.[29][2][28] The upper floors were used as a residence for students of the National University Law School.[28]
In March 1921,Alpha chapter had a newly furnished chapter house at 1654 Columbia Road.[30] In May 1923, it moved to a new chapter house at 1752 N Street Northwest.[31]
Chapter officers were called chancellor, first vice-chancellor, second vice-chancellor, master of rolls, registrar, and crier.[32] Nationally, Sigma Nu Phi was governed by a high court of chancery which met annually, and an elected executive council.[5][24]
The Sigma Nu Phi collegiate chapters were named for distinguished lawyers, in addition to having Greek letter names.[5] Following is a list of known collegiate chapters.[1][3][5][33]
^Not to be confused with the AmericanOrder of the Coif, formed in Chicago in 1902.
^Chapter disbanded after all but three of its members graduated.
^Chapter assigned the Greek Letter Omega on rechartering
^Baird's 20th edition notes this chapter formed in 1903.
^The 1912 Georgetown Law School yearbook says this chapter was at theUniversity of Nashville. However, that school closed in 1909 and did not have a law school. The Nashville School of Law, which opened in 1911, is the logical host for a chapter of Sigma Nu Phi.
^Chapter formed by absorbing Lambda Sigma Chi (local), established in 1904.
^Chapter formed from affiliation of the Wm. H. Taft Club
^Chapter formed at Trinity College which changed its name to Duke University in 1925.
^In 1938, the charter was transferred from Northwestern College of Law to St. Paul College of Law/Minneapolis College of Law.
^Chapter formed at the Westminster College of Law which merged with University of Denver College of Law in 1957.
^The Detroit City Law School was formed in 1927, as part of the College of the City of Detroit, offering evening classes. It would later consolidate as theWayne State University Law School.
^This college began a series of mergers between four Minneapolis law schools in 1940, culminating with a merger with the St. Paul College of Law to createWilliam_Mitchell_College_of_Law in 1956.
^Cumberland Law School became a unit of Samford University in 1961, moving from Tennessee to Alabama.
^abcdAnson, Jack L.; Marchenasi, Robert F., eds. (1991) [1879].Baird's Manual of American Fraternities (20th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Baird's Manual Foundation, Inc. p. V-101.ISBN978-0963715906.
^abcd"Organizations".Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 31 December 1906. p. 12. Retrieved24 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^abc"Sigma Nu Phi is New Body".Omaha Daily Bee. Omaha, Nebraska. 16 February 1903. p. 2. Retrieved24 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^abcdefghijklmnopqrstRobson, John, ed. (1963).Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (17th ed.). Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press, George Banta Company, Inc. pp. 513-514.
^ab"Sigma Nu Phi Incorporated".The Washington Times. Washington, District of Columbia. 14 February 1903. p. 1. Retrieved24 August 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^abcdefghijkYe Domesday Booke (yearbook)(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Class of 1912 Georgetown University Law School / The Carnahan Press. June 1912. p. 183. Retrieved24 August 2023 – via Georgetown University Library.
Former and formerly active members of the Professional Fraternity Association or its predecessors: Professional Panhellenic Association or Professional Interfraternity Conference
