Cross & Crescent

“A man who has agreed to join a college fraternity is usually known as a pledge. This term is used in Lambda Chi Alpha, but pledges of this Fraternity are specifically known among members as pledges, or aspirants; that is, those who aspire.”

So it is written in early editions of the Paedagogus. Since 1972, the term “associate member” has replaced the word “pledge” along with most of its earlier connotations.

For the purposes of this article on the emblems of an aspirant, I shall use the terminology in effect during the time period being discussed.

Although not every member owns an official badge, virtually all of the more than 250,000 initiates of Lambda Chi Alpha (except chapter founders and honoraries) have proudly worn either a pledge button or an associate member pin.

Thus, its significance is relevant to each one of us.

Initially Made with Ribbons

While today’s associate member pins are most often pinned on a shirt, college men in the first half of the 20th century commonly wore jackets and ties to social and sporting events, as well as to class.

All pledge pins, therefore, were made with a threaded post and were affixed to the left coat lapel through a buttonhole and secured by a brass disc screwed onto the back.

When Rollin Johnson (Massachusetts) inquired in September 1912, about getting a supply of pledge pins for the newly installed chapter at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts), the response from Warren A. Cole (Boston 1912) was not what he had expected.

Cole instructed him to use strips of royal purple, gold, and olive green ribbons, each about three inches long and a quarter inch wide. “These ribbons we place one over the other so that the edges of each just shows and run them through the pledged man’s buttonhole and tie them on the back of the coat lapel,” Cole wrote.

Recognizing the urgency of a real pledge pin, Cole immediately set upon designing one, making sketches – including one of his law fraternity Gamma Eta Gamma – on the back of the very same letter he had received from Johnson.

In November 1912, referring to the installation of the chapter at Brown University, Cole noted, “We had sixteen charter members and have pledge ribbons upon seven men in college.” Ribbons were indeed used.

Lambda Chi Alpha’s first pledge pin was triangular in outline with the three Greek letters within the points. It is not known which letter was at the top, for no examples are known to exist, but a dozen pins were made in Providence, Rhode Island, and sent to the Massachusetts chapter, which may have been the only chapter to have used that particular design. In December 1912, a radically new form was already under consideration.

Mason’s Influence

John E. Mason (Pennsylvania 1913), creator of much of our insignia, was responsible for the pledge pin that would predominate for the next quarter century. Oddly enough, it was not intended to be a pledge button, but as an alumni pin for those who didn’t want the expense of paying for a badge.

He submitted two sketches to Cole - the second was later used as the friendship pin. Mason’s graceful geometric arch encompassed the Fraternity’s letters within the classic lines suggestive of a Gothic window. Cole quickly approved it.

In January 1913, with the chapter at Penn State University clamoring for the 35-cent triangular pins they’d heard about, Cole advised them they were discontinued and placed an order for the new pins.

On March 3, 1913, six of the first 12 pins were sent to the men of Penn State at a cost of 75 cents each.

Early Jewelers

It is quite possible the Thomae Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was the first to produce these pins. Examples bearing the Thomae Co. name exist, but are shorter and fatter-looking (3/8″ inches) than Mason’s original sketch and later versions of the pin.

In 1920, the company’s name was changed to Charles Thomae & Son, Inc., hence the pins bearing the earlier name would have been made between 1913 and 1920.

Although a depiction of Mason’s taller, thinner design appeared in the January 1915, Purple, Green and Gold magazine, the proportions of the Thomae pin were published as a graphic in Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities from 1920 through 1935. Some were printed upside down.

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, jewelers Hoover and Smith are also thought to have made early versions, perhaps at the request of the chapter at the University of Pennsylvania.

It is believed that when the L.G. Balfour Company, also of Attleboro, Massachusetts, became the Fraternity’s official jeweler in 1920, they took over the production of the pledge pin. The Balfour pins, measuring 7/16″ inches in height, more closely resembled Mason’s original design, but may also have been made in several different versions.

Theta Kappa Nu Impact

By the merger between Lambda Chi Alpha and Theta Kappa Nu in 1939, the pledge pin – still being made by Balfour – had served the Fraternity for more than 26 years, even though it was actually the third insignia worn by aspirants since our founding.

In the January 1915, Purple, Green and Gold, Louis F. Robbins (Brown 1912) praised the venerable pin, even though it was relatively new:

“Very often the pledge pin seems to have been slighted by fraternity designers, but we do not feel that this is the case with our own. It is considered one of our best designed emblems. It has individuality in the Gothic quality of its pattern, and is entirely original in conception. The fraternity letters are clearly discernible in the design, yet it bears plenty of hidden significance, and enough secret symbolism to delight the most ardent yearner for the mystical.”

Today’s associate member pin was formed by combining the badge of Theta Kappa Nu and the above-mentioned Lambda Chi pledge pin – an easy, straightforward task. Or was it? The answer may surprise you.

We will take a look at the further evolution of the emblem of an aspirant next month in Part II.