Kappa Kappa Gamma
| Kappa Kappa Gamma | |
|---|---|
| ΚΚΓ | |
 |
|
| Founded |
October 13, 1870 |
| Type | Social |
| Scope | International |
| Motto | Aspire to be |
| Colors | Dark Blue Light Blue |
| Symbol | Key, Fleur-de-Lis, Owl |
| Flower | Fleur-de-Lis |
| Jewel | Sapphire |
| Patron Roman divinity | Minerva |
| Publication | The Key |
| Philanthropy | Reading Is Fundamental, The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation |
| Chapters | 140 |
| Members | 260,000 collegiate |
| Headquarters |
530 East Town Street P.O. Box 38 Columbus, Ohio USA |
| Homepage | www.kappa.org |
October 13, 1870
Monmouth College, (Monmouth, Illinois)
Kappa Kappa Gamma (ΚΚΓ) ("Kappa") is a collegiate sorority, founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, United States. Although the groundwork of the organization was developed as early as 1869, the 1876 Convention voted that October 13, 1870 should be recognized as the official Founders Day, because no earlier charter date could be determined. This makes Kappa Kappa Gamma one of the oldest extant women's Greek-letter societies.
Kappa has a total membership of more than 260,000 women, with 140 collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada and 307 alumnae associations worldwide.
Kappa Kappa Gamma is a women's fraternity, because it was founded before the term "sorority" came into use. Because men were able to create fraternity groups, Kappa's founders thought they should be able to do the same. However, since it admits only women, it is referred to as a sorority. Kappa Kappa Gamma is also referred to as "KKG" and "Kappa".
The idea of Kappa Kappa Gamma was conceived in a conversation between two college women, Mary Louise Bennett and Hannah Jeannette Boyd, on a wooden bridge over a stream on the Monmouth College campus in the late 1860s. Though the coeducational college was considered progressive at the time, the women were dissatisfied with the fact that while men enjoyed membership in fraternities, women had few equivalent organizations for companionship, support, and advancement, and were instead limited to literary societies. Bennett and Boyd began to seek "the choicest spirits among the girls, not only for literary work, but also for social development", beginning with their friend Mary Moore Stewart. Stewart, Boyd, and Bennett met around 1869 in the Amateurs des Belles Lettres Hall, a literary society of which the women were active members when they first decided to form a new society. Soon after, they recruited three additional women, Anna Elizabeth Willits, Martha Louisa Stevenson, and Susan Burley Walker, to join in founding the fraternity.
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