Knox College Co-eds in 1908 at Whiting Hall
This photograph is so typical of the rooms in which college co-eds lived and played during the early 1900s. The pennants from other colleges and schools were standard decorations. A look through any woman’s fraternity magazine from that time period will likely yield one or two photos similar to the one above.
After all, inter-collegiate sport competitions began in the late 1800s and by the early 1900s school rivalries were common. The women above, members of the Illinois Delta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, had the opportunity to watch one of the oldest intercollegiate rivalries. Yearly beginning in 1888, Knox College and nearby Monmouth College have battled for the Bronze Turkey Trophy.
In a July 1901 Arrow, the Corresponding Secretary for Vermont Beta, Grace Goodhue [Coolidge], wrote “During the last week there has been a tennis tournament here with Dartmouth, in which we won, and if our baseball had only been a little more successful we should be feeling in pretty good spirits. We wish to say to our Syracuse sisters that it is now our turn to offer congratulations to them and we do so most heartily, but with a rather forced smile.” (For the record, I date Mrs. Coolidge’s love of baseball to her college days. Few other Pi Beta Phi Corresponding Secretaries of that era included information about collegiate sports in their chapter reports.)
The pennant that intrigued me the most in this photo is the Culver one on the right side. The first time I heard of Culver was when I was researching the history of the Kappa Kappa Chapter of Sigma Chi at the University of Illinois. In leafing through the Sigma Chi magazine, I remembered seeing a picture of Lloyd G. Balfour (who would later be named a Significant Sig) with cadets on the Culver lawn. Culver Military Academy, established in 1894 in Culver, Indiana, may have been one of his early class ring accounts.
When I began my current paid employment, one of the Board members spoke about Culver and having to go to a meeting there. It turns out she served as a Board member at the Culver Academies. When I found this photo in the Knox College Archives, I immediately saw the Culver pennant. I also am aware that there is a college in Missouri called Culver-Stockton. I wasn’t sure whose pennant this was. As it turns out, Culver-Stockton did not acquire that name until after this picture was taken. And a quick google search showed me that the Culver logo hasn’t changed at all and it is the same one as on the pennant. Culver Military Academy is basically a high school. I cannot locate information about it having been a post-secondary institution back in the days when these women proudly displayed the Culver pennant in their dining room.
These women were in the midst of enjoying a Cookie-Shine, but the origins of that time honored Pi Phi tradition will have to be saved until another day and time.
I clicked on the photo and saw Phi Gamma Delta and Beta Theta Pi letters decorating the room, too. Things haven’t changed much today and sorority women adorning their rooms with letters of their favorite fraternities.