Alpha Chi Omega’s seven founders, Anna Allen, Olive Burnett, Bertha Deniston, Amy DuBois, Nellie Gamble, Bessie Grooms and Estelle Leonard, were students in the DePauw School of Music. With the guidance and support of James Hamilton Howe, Dean of the School of Music, they created an organization that at its beginning insisted that its members possess some musical culture. The group was organized on October 15, 1885.
The first appearance of Alpha Chi Omega was in Meharry Hall of East College. The seven women wore scarlet and olive ribbon streamers. The badge is in the shape of a Greek lyre.
Alpha Chi Omega has a long connection to the MacDowell Colony, the country’s oldest artist colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The Colony was founded in 1907 by Edward and Marian Nevins MacDowell; they created an environment to foster creative work. Mrs. MacDowell was an early member of Alpha Chi Omega’s Zeta Chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Alpha Chi Omega funded the Star Studio which opened in 1911. The 1916 History of Alpha Chi Omega was written by Florence Armstrong in the Star Studio. More than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners have created work at the MacDowell Colony.
The Star Studio in the 1920s.
Star Studio, MacDowell Artist Colony
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