Alpha Delta Phi | |
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ΑΔΦ | |
Founded | October 29, 1832 Hamilton College |
Type | Secret, social, literary |
Scope | International |
Motto | Manus Multæ Cor Unum (Many Hands, One Heart) |
Colors | Emerald and Pearl |
Symbol | Star, crescent, sword, spear, escutcheon |
Flower | The Lily of the Valley |
Chapters | 33 |
Members | 50,000+ lifetime |
Headquarters |
6126 Lincoln Avenue Morton Grove, Illinois United States |
Homepage | Fraternity, Society |
Alpha Delta Phi (ΑΔΦ, also Alpha Delt, A.D. or ADPhi) is a North American Greek-letter secret and social college fraternity. Alpha Delta Phi was founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Its more than 50,000 alumni include former presidents and senators of the United States, and chief justices of the Supreme Court. In 1992, five chapters withdrew from the male-only organization to become co-educational, and formed the Alpha Delta Phi Society, a separate and independent organization.
When Samuel Eells arrived on campus at Hamilton College, he found two existing literary societies, the Phoenix and the Philopeuthian, the latter of which he reluctantly joined. Eells quickly became disenchanted with both societies' unscrupulous recruiting tactics and considered creating his own society which would disavow what he described as jealous and unsavory competition between the two. Eells proposed to select members from both the Phoenix and the Philopeuthian and found a new society of limited membership based on "the loftiest of intellectual and moral ideals."
On October 29, 1832, Eells gathered four other members, two from the Phoenix and two from the Philopeuthian, to a meeting in his room. The other men were Lorenzo Latham, John Curtiss Underwood, Oliver Andrew Morse and Henry Lemuel Storrs. At that meeting Eells wrote the constitution and he and Latham designed the fraternity's emblem and symbols. Later in the year, other members were added and the first chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi was in full operation by the beginning of 1833.