Founders Gamma Phi Beta Society was founded on November 11, 1874, at
Syracuse University in
Syracuse, New York, by Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis, and Mary A. Bingham. The society's first initiate, Clara Worden, joined in March 1875. For its first several years, Gamma Phi Beta was simply known as a
society; it had never used the term
fraternity. It was the first of the national women's organizations to adopt the word "sorority", coined in 1882 on behalf of the Syracuse chapter by one of the Latin professors on the faculty, Dr. Frank Smalley. From 1882 on, the organization was known as
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.
Alpha Phi was founded first in 1872 by 10 of the original 20 women admitted to Syracuse University. Gamma Phi Beta came along two years later in 1874, and
Alpha Gamma Delta completed the triad in 1904. Syracuse Triad ceremonies or events are held on most campuses with chapters of all three groups.
Later history The sorority's second chapter, the
Beta chapter at the
University of Michigan, was chartered in 1882 and was followed in 1885 by the
Gamma chapter at
University of Wisconsin. Over the next ten years, the sorority expanded into the
Midwest and into eastern schools. In 1894, Gamma Phi Beta expanded to the
West Coast at the
University of California and to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Haven assisted with establishing the
Omicron chapter at the
University of Illinois in
Champaign, Illinois in 1913. Omicron is the only other chapter established by one of the founders. In 1919, the establishment of the
Alpha Alpha chapter at the
University of Toronto in
Toronto, Canada, made the sorority international. == Symbols ==