Delta Theta Phi#Delta Phi Delta

{{about|the professional Law fraternity|the professional Art fraternity|Delta Phi Delta}}

Delta Phi Delta (law) was founded at the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin University, on September 15, 1900, by C. E. Schmick, E. Quigley, F. W. Sinram, J. L. Barrett, W. F. Mackay, J. H. Orgill, and Arthur Born. It went national with the establishment of a Beta chapter (now the Harlan-McKusick Senate) at the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1904. Delta Phi Delta's Magazine was The Syllabus, first published in 1911. Delta Theta Phi now uses that name for the newsletter distributed to elected members of the administrative organization.[https://www.deltathetaphi.org/history Delta Theta Phi - About Us - History]{{cite journal |last1=York |first1=Kenneth H. |date=1952 |title=Legal Fraternities |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1284939 |format=PDF |journal=Michigan Law Review |publisher=The Michigan Law Review Association |volume=50 |issue=7 |pages=1047–56 |doi=10.2307/1284939 |jstor=1284939 |access-date=27 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}

Alpha Kappa Phi was founded at the law school of Northwestern University on October 6, 1902. Seeking to secure the advantage of an earlier date of origin its founders took the name of an old undergraduate fraternity called Alpha Kappa Phi which originated at Centre College, Ky., in 1858 and established several chapters in the South, the last one of which at the University of Mississippi became Beta Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi in 1879,{{cite book|title=Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ekguAQAAIAAJ|year=1905|publisher=G. Banta Company|page=431}} becoming extinct a few years later. They also sought to secure some sanction for their conduct by securing permission from the living members of the extinct society to such assumption of their abandoned name. But no expedient of this kind could alter the date of the organization of this fraternity or serve as a basis for a claim to an earlier date than 1902. The fraternity became national in 1904 with the installation of the Beta chapter at Illinois College of Law (now the Warvelle Senate at DePaul University College of Law).

Theta Lambda Phi was founded on February 18, 1903, at the law school of Dickinson College by Thomas S. Lanard and Walter P. Bishop. The first chapter was founded as the Holmes chapter with permission of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. A representative of West Publishing when visiting the law school learned of the formation of the fraternity, and the next issue of the Docket (published by West) announced the organization of Theta Lambda Phi as a new national law fraternity. Students at the Detroit College of Law, after seeing the article formed the Cooley chapter to make the fraternity national. In November 1903, Theta Lambda Phi started The Paper Book as its official form of communication. Delta Theta Phi still uses that name for its official publication mailed to all members.

Delta Theta Phi was established {{dts|1913|09|26}}, by merged of Alpha Kappa Phi, Delta Phi Delta and Theta Lambda Phi.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bairdsmanualame00bairgoog |title=Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities |publisher=G. Banta Company |year=1920 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bairdsmanualame00bairgoog/page/n719 678]}}{{cite book |title=Baird's Manual of American Fraternities |publisher=Baird's Manual Foundation, Inc. |year=1991 |isbn=978-0963715906 |editor1-last=Anson |editor1-first=Jack L. |edition=20th |location=Indianapolis, IN |page=V-18–20 |editor2-last=Marchenasi |editor2-first=Robert F. |orig-date=1879}} It became an international fraternity when chapters were established in Australia, Canada, Iceland in the later 1960s.{{Cite web |date=December 15, 2015 |title=Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity, International Reorganized at U of A |url=https://news.uark.edu/articles/33174/delta-theta-phi-law-fraternity-international-reorganized-at-u-of-a |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=University of Arkansas News |language=en}}

Delta Theta Phi merged with Sigma Nu Phi in 1989, taking all of Sigma Nu Phi members into membership and gaining The Adelphia Law Journal, giving Delta Theta Phi its own law review.

The fraternity has more than 136,000 initiates. Its international headquarters are located at 1611 S. Utica Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma.{{Cite web |title=International Office |url=https://www.deltathetaphi.org/international-office |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Delta Theta Phi}}

The name Delta Theta Phi was created by combining on letter of the fraternity's three predecessor groups: Delta Phi Delta, Theta Lambda Phi, and Alpha Kappa Phi. The Delta Theta Phi badge is a circle over a triangle.{{Cite web |title=Constitution of the Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity |url=https://sites.pitt.edu/~sorc/deltatp/constitution.htm |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=University of Pittsburgh, School of Law}} In the center of the triangle are the Greek letters {{lang|grc|ΔΘΦ}}; above the letters are the scales of justice and below is an open book. The fraternity's colors are green and white. Its flower is the white carnation.

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The governing body for the fraternity called the Supreme Senate, has overseen the operation of the fraternity since 1913. The Supreme Senate was originally composed of seven elected officers until a student was added to the board to ensure a more complete student representation. In the 1970s, a second student position was added.

{{Main|List of Delta Theta Phi chapters}}

There are more than 150 student senates or chapters of Delta Theta Phi.Robson, John, ed. (1963). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (17th ed.). Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press, George Banta Company, Inc. pp. 467-469.

Notable initiates of Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity include four U.S. Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon B. Johnson), Robert Menzies, an Australian Prime Minister, nine Chief or Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, including among them Edward Douglass White Jr., Charles Evans Hughes, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, and William K. Suter, Alfred Lawrence, 1st Baron Trevethin, a Lord Chief Justice of England.

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Category:Student organizations established in 1900

Category:Professional legal fraternities and sororities in the United States

Category:Professional Fraternity Association

Category:1900 establishments in Ohio