The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Alpha of Florida
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The Founding of Phi Beta Kappa National Chapter December 5th, 1776

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On December 5, 1776, a group of young men, students at the College of William and Mary, met in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, and founded the Phi Beta Kappa Society.  The Phi Beta Kappa Handbook includes a history of the early days of the Society in Virginia.  A chapter was subsequently established at Yale in 1780 and at Harvard in 1781.  Chapters were soon founded at Dartmouth in 1787, Union College in 1817, Bowdoin in 1825, and Brown in 1830.  The society was opened to women in 1875, and the national United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa was chartered in 1883.   By the year 2000, 255 chapters had been established across the United States. Initially, the Society was a secret order. Following the anti-Masonic agitations of the 1830s, however, most chapters repealed their secrecy injunctions. 

The celebrated Phi Beta Kappa key -- the model for membership keys in most of the national honor societies founded after Phi Beta Kappa -- is substantially the same key designed by the original William and Mary chapter.  The three stars in the upper left corner of the key symbolize Friendship, Morality, and Literature.  The pointing hand in the lower right corner represents Aspiration.  The letters Phi Beta Kappa stand for the Greek phrase, “Philosophia Biou Kubernetes” -- “Philosophy, the helmsman of life.” On the reverse side of the medal, the letters “S P” stand for the second motto of Phi Beta Kappa: “Societas Philosophiae” – “Society of Philosophy.”  Members greeted each other by drawing the backs of the index and middle fingers of the right hand across the lips from left to right -- affirming that their lips were sealed.  They also offered a handshake extending the same two fingers.