Phi Beta Kappa. Massachusetts Iota (Radcliffe College)

Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society, was organized in 1776. Radcliffe first showed an interest in having a chapter in 1907, but it was several years before the College could overcome "the belief held by some members of the fraternity that it was the duty of the Harvard Chapter either to admit Radcliffe students or to provide them with a kind of sub-chapter." The Radcliffe Chapter- Iota of Massachusetts- was finally organized in May 1914. The petitioners were twenty-one members of the Harvard Chapter, most of them members of the Harvard faculty who taught at Radcliffe.

Membership in the Iota Chapter is awarded to a small number of undergraduates, elected in their junior and senior years, and to deserving alumnae. In addition there are a small number of honorary members. Radcliffe Ph.D.'s were elected as "graduate members in course" beginning in 1939.

The Iota Chapter is administered by an Executive Council made up of the principal officers and heads of committees of the Chapter. Three committees- the Committee on Undergraduate Elections, the Committee on Alumnae and Honorary Membership, and the Committee on Graduate Members in Course- are responsible for election of the various classes of members. The Committee on the Encouragement of Scholarship sponsors lectures, prize contests, and, beginning in 1926, the Annual Dinner, to which promising freshwomen and sophomores are invited. In addition to the dinner, the Chapter has an annual meeting for business and a spring meeting for initiations.

From the guide to the Records of Radcliffe Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, 1907-1995, (Radcliffe College Archives, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)