Phi Beta Kappa
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Phi Beta Kappa. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the oldest of the American college Greek-letter societies. It takes its name from the initial letters of its motto, said to be Philosophia Biou Kubernetes, "Philosophy is the guide of life." It was founded in 1776 in the old "Raleigh Tavern" at Williamsburgh, Va., by forty-four undergraduates of William and Mary College, of whom PHELPS, AUSTIN, an American clergyman and author, born in West Brookfield, Mass., Jan. 7, 1820. He was pastor of the Pine Street Congregational Church, Boston, in 1842-1848; and Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary, in 1848-1879. John Marshall He was noted as an original writer and were Harbor, an eloquent preacher. His works include: "The Still Hour" (1859); "The New Birth" (1867); "Men and Books" (1882); "English Style in Public Discourse" (1883). He died in Bar Ha Me., Oct. 13, 1890. PHELPS, EDWARD JOHN, an American diplomatist; born in Middlebury, Vt., July 11, 1822; was graduated at Middlebury College in 1840; Law School; was admitted to the bar in 1843; and settled in Burlington in 1845. In 1851 he was appointed Comptroller of the Treasury. În 1881-1885 he was Professor of Law in the Yale Law School and also lecturer on constitutional law in Boston University. He was minister to 40; studied at the Yale was one. Branches established at Yale in 1780 At_Harvard there is an annual uates." agreeable bond of meeting among gradand at Harvard in 1781, and to-day there are nearly a score in the principal colleges and universities of the Union. The Phi Beta Kappa is now simply "an Phi Beta Kappa dinner, oration, and poem; the earliest and one of the most Wendell Holmes (1829). The badge of with Lafayette for a guest, in 1824; and striking of Edward Everett's great orations was delivered before the society, among the early poets were R. T. Paine ("The Ruling Passion") and Oliver Wendell the society is a golden watch key with the initials BK. Admission to membership varies with different chapters.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a Greek letter society. It was the earliest of the college fraternities. It was founded at William and Mary college in 1776. The letters are the initials of the Greek words meaning "Philosophy, the Guide of Life." The organization is now an open one. Membership is restricted to seniors who have won honorable mention for scholarship.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's counted "nearly a score" of chapters in 1921 and Aiton's noted in 1910 that the society had become "an open one" restricted to high-scholarship seniors; both descriptions still hold in outline, but the scale has grown enormously — Phi Beta Kappa now has roughly 290 chapters at American colleges and universities and elects thousands of new members each year. The golden key remains the badge, the motto is still rendered "Philosophy is the guide of life," and the William and Mary founding of December 1776 is unchanged. What the old accounts do not mention is that election is no longer confined to seniors at many chapters, and that the society has become a national publisher: it launched the quarterly The American Scholar in 1932, which is now better known to the general public than the annual dinners and orations Collier's described. Women had in fact been admitted decades before either entry was written, at the University of Vermont chapter in the 1870s.
Written for this edition, 2026.