Kappa Delta was founded on October 23, 1897 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its founders are Lenora Ashmore Blackiston, Julia Gardiner Tyler Wilson, Sara Turner White and Mary Sommerville Sparks Hendrick. Kappa Delta, along with Zeta Tau Alpha, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha, were founded at the same institution and comprise the “Farmville Four.” (Two of them joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and the other two became members of the Association of Education Sororities (AES) – before AES members became a part of NPC but that is a story for another day.)
Kappa Delta is likely the only National Panhellenic Conference organization that can claim a U.S. President’s granddaughter as a founder. Julia Gardiner Tyler Wilson’s grandfather was John Tyler. Her father was the President of the College of William and Mary. She designed Kappa Delta’s badge. Wilson spent an additional year in Farmville and then transferred to Dana Hall in Massachusetts. There she prepared to enter Wellesley College. She graduated from Wellesley in 1904.
Julia Gardiner Tyler Wilson
Of the other three Kappa Delta founders, only Hendrick played a major role in helping the organization grow. Blackiston transferred to Randolph-Macon Women’s College shortly after Kappa Delta was founded. White did not return after her first year.
The Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta was installed in 1913 at the Normal College of the City of New York. That name threw me for a second. “The college is readily accessible, because it is situated at 68 Street and Park Avenue, in the heart of New York City,” according to a description in The Angelos of Kappa Delta. It took me a minute to realize that it must be Hunter College, and indeed it was. The name was changed in 1914 to honor its first president, Thomas Hunter. The school also took on more majors than teaching, so the chapter did not get caught up in the NPC/AES distinction.
The charter members of the Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta
I saw this picture and I knew I had to include it somehow. The members of the Eta Chapter are displayed in the shape of an Eta, The chapter closed in 1964.
