A Guide to the UT Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Collection, 1922-2005

Historical Note

In 1921, several female University of Texas at Austin students met at the home of Viola Baker to organize a social club, which the women called the Sigma Club. After petitioning the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, the club became the sorority’s Alpha Zeta Chapter in 1922. The national organization was founded in 1874 at Syracuse University, and the first international chapter began in 1919 at the University of Toronto. Furthermore, the group began publishing its magazine, The Crescent, in 1900.

Scope and Contents

A scrapbook, correspondence, and printed material compose the UT Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Collection, 1922-2005, which documents the social life and accomplishments of sorority members and administration of the University of Texas at Austin’s Alpha Zeta Chapter of the Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority. The scrapbook, 1949-1950, contains photos and newspaper clippings about members. The correspondence, [ca. 1954]-1955, includes drafts and copies of letters with handwritten notes from the Corporation Board of the Alpha Zeta Chapter about housing, rushing, nominations for chapter officers, and problem members. The printed material consists of a 1960 senior breakfast program and the 1922 petition to the Gamma Phi Beta National Sorority for a University of Texas Chapter. Additionally, the loose material, which was separated from books sent to the Briscoe Center Library, contains sorority songs from the 1930s and a 1939 letter with news and historical information about Gamma Phi Beta.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

UT Gamma Phi Beta Sorority Collection, 1922-2005, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Megan Mummey, April 2010.

Sebsequent revisions were made by Laurel Rozema, November 2010.

Detailed Description of the Papers