Thank you to all our generous alumni who have loyally given VG Dues this past year!We are only as strong as our commitment to the Old Lady and this dedication has shown itself through a prosperous year.In addition to hosting the second annual Preamble Institute to develop leadership within our Charges, we have been able to give more support to our existing groups while expanding to new institutions.The future for Theta Delta Chi is bright!Help us make next year even better by donating. Pay VGDues.
Theta Delta Chi has been a pioneer in many fields. It was the first of all college societies to publish a fraternity magazine, The Shield. It was the first to adopt colors (blue, black, and white), and was the first to design and fly a characteristic flag. It was the first to adopt a precious stone (ruby) as well as the first to adopt a patron among the deities of mythology (Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, who has since been adopted as the patron goddess of all fraternities). Theta Delta Chi was the first fraternity to adopt the use of a pledge pin, and it was also the first to form an endowment fund.
Firsts of Theta Delta Chi : Flag, Colors, Magazine, Patron Goddess, Precious Stone, Fraternity Flower, Pledge Pin, Endowment Fund.
The Flag of Theta Delta Chi
Theta Delta Chi was the first Greek letter fraternity to have a flag. The flag was first flown from the Astor House in New York City, February, 1870, and had a blue field with three black letters edged in white. At the time, the New York Evening Telegram recorded: "The mysterious blue ensign of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity which floated from the Astor House flagstaff yesterday, caused a group of old tars a great deal of annoyance. They could not tell what it meant. 'There's an eight (8) and a triangle and an X,' said one. 'I don't know what them things stand for.' The tars walked away shaking their heads ponderingly and dubiously.
Minerva
To Theta Delts, the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. She is the Patron Goddess of Theta Delta Chi.
The historians tell us that there is nothing trustworthy in Greek history prior to the first Olympiad; that before this time everything, and for a century or two later, almost everything, is vague and uncertain. Not withstanding this, the Greeks of the Classical period got a great deal of pleasure from their legendary history, or mythology. Their faith was molded by it and their lives were influenced by it. And so the traditions of a people or of an institution are certainly worthy of record.
Minerva has been the patron goddess of Theta Delta Chi - possibly from the beginning of things. The first printed mention of the fact that has come under the writer's observation is contained in the account of the 1873 Convention, when Franklin Burdge, Zeta 1856, delivered his famous "History of the Origin and Founders of Our Fraternity." In the closing paragraph he says: "The Theta Delta Chi, like its patron goddess, never passed through a weak and pulling infancy, but sprang into being with the strength of maturity."
There is no doubt as to the allusion, for while the accounts of Minerva's (Athena in Greek) birth do differ, the most common is that Zeus produced her from his head, which he had ordered Hephaestus to cleave open; that the great goddess of war, in full armor, with poised spear, then sprang forth, chanting a war song, while a mighty commotion, both on land and sea, announced the great event to the world.
Our brotherhood was the first to adopt an emblematic stone. It is an open secret that the fidelity of a "Ruby" to our fraternity caused this action to be taken. She is one of the leading society ladies of the city of New York, and her husband is one of our most prominent surgeons.
She was in her girlhood days the most brilliant star in the famous galaxy known as Chi Theta Delta sisterhood of the Troy Female Seminary, a sisterhood which was at its zenith in the year 1859.
- From the Shield, IV (1888), Carl Axel Harstrom, Zeta 1886
