In the late 1800s, there were only three academic honor societies, and they were all discipline-specific.
Tau Beta Pi for engineering and
Sigma Xi for scientific research were founded in 1885 and 1886, respectively.
Phi Beta Kappa was a social and literary society that did not originate as an honor society when it was founded in 1776, but by the 1850s, according to historians, had evolved as an honor society for the liberal arts and sciences. Although Phi Beta Kappa was not exclusive to one discipline, it did not extend its membership beyond the liberal arts and sciences, hence the establishment of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering. Phi Beta Kappa became sufficient as an all-campus honor society for liberal arts colleges, but no honor society could serve as such for the universities encompassing both
liberal education and also technological and professional education, a mission to which the newly burgeoning
land-grant universities of the time were dedicated. That changed in 1897 when the first organizational meeting of
Lambda Sigma Eta (later named Phi Kappa Phi), the nation's first all-discipline honor society, was held in Coburn Hall at the
University of Maine under the leadership of undergraduate student
Marcus Urann. In opposition to what he saw as the separateness and exclusivity promoted by the social fraternities and discipline bound honor societies, Urann wanted to create a society that was defined by inclusiveness and that unified a campus, constituted by "high-rank men drawn from all classes and all groups and all societies". The honor society was formed to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of
education". A year or so later, the name was changed to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of
the Congressional Act which provided for
land-grant universities. In 1899, the first woman was initiated into the society, Pearl Clayton Swain. In 1900, the society became national in scope by action of the presidents of the
University of Maine (the founding chapter),
University of Tennessee, and
Pennsylvania State University. The society published the first issue of
The Phi Kappa Phi Journal in 1915. That year, the society established an association with the
American Association for the Advancement of Science that would last until 1962. In 1976, Phi Kappa Phi established its first chapter at a
historically black college or university when one was established at
Jackson State University. == Symbols ==