Cross & Crescent

As incredible as it may seem, the early development of the Lambda Chi Alpha badge — from plain to jeweled to pearled; from having Delta Phi to having Delta Pi — took place within the short span of just one year.

From December 1911 to December 1912, the badge evolved from a prototype to the standard design still used today.

J.G. Johnston

In the fall of 1911, our founder Warren A. Cole (Boston 1912), had been living with his wife of one year at 22 Joy Street, Boston, Massachusetts. By the time of his 22nd birthday on November 15, 1911, however, he was rooming at 35 Hancock Street with Ralph S. Miles (Boston 1914) and Harold W. Bridge (Boston 1914).

On Saturday, December 23, 1911, the first four Lambda Chi Alpha badges were purchased by Cole, Miles, Bridge, and Percival C. Morse (Boston 1912) from the neighborhood jeweler J.G. Johnston, located at 79 Sudbury Street in the vicinity of the current John F. Kennedy Government Offices.

Johnston was known for producing athletic and high school pins, but was not a major supplier of jewelry to college fraternities.

The badges cost $3.25 each. Cole, Miles, and Morse also bought fobs at Johnston’s for $.50 apiece. That same day, Cole and Miles bought pipes at the nearby United Cigar store. Several months later Cole would write to Albert Cross (Pennsylvania 1913) on the importance of “pins, hat bands, [and] frat pipes” in rushing prospective candidates.

The chapter at Massachusetts Agricultural College (University of Massachusetts) was installed on May 18, 1912. The following day, Cross at the University of Pennsylvania inquired about obtaining pins.

On May 21, Cole replied that the men at Pennsylvania would have to have their pins made locally, and sent his own Johnston badge to Cross “as a model from which to get out the die.” Curiously, however, just three days later, Cole accepted an order from Massachusetts for eight pins — an order that was filled during the summer.

Many believe that only four members at Boston owned Johnston badges. The men at Massachusetts ordered the eight just described, at $3.50 apiece. Lewis Drury (Massachusetts 1913) ordered a replacement for one he’d lost, bringing the total number of badges known to have been made by J.G. Johnston to 13 pins.

Why Johnston badges could be obtained for one chapter and not the other is a question that may never be answered.

Wm. Thegen’s Sons

On May 25, 1912, Cross took Cole’s Johnston badge to William Thegen’s Sons at 618 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just half a block from Independence Hall, and ordered eight pins for the Pennsylvania chapter.

Thegen’s — like Johnston — was not known for making fraternity jewelry, but rather Masonic items and military medals.

Discussions with the jeweler led to the decision, with Cole’s approval, to replace the enameled grapes and olives with arrangements of tiny purple and green jewels, thus retaining the Fraternity’s colors. When the pins were ready on June 17, 1912, at a cost of $9 each, they instead had six large stones in the crescent.

As early as June 9, 1912, questions arose concerning the use of the letters Delta Phi for the secret Latin motto in the constitution, and with the Delta Phi Fraternity being prominent on the Pennsylvania campus, the men at Lambda Chi chapter had particular reservations about using those letters on their badges.

John E. Mason (Pennsylvania 1913) suggested that using Delta Pi would solve the problem and, in fact, be more accurate. On September 19, 1912, Cole authorized the change from Phi to Pi on the first coat of arms, known as the Gamma Plate, and on the pins. He re-confirmed that decision on October 30, by stating that it “will remain so.”

As it happened, news of the change from Phi to Pi did not reach the Massachusetts chapter in time to be incorporated into the Gamma Plate. On October 15, 1912, the chapter received the proof of the engraving from the Chas. H. Elliott Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The graphic of the badge was a stylized depiction of the original Johnston pin.

Edwards, Haldeman Co.

The third company to make our badge — and the first to specialize in manufacturing fraternity jewelry — was Edwards, Haldeman Co. of Detroit, Michigan, which made badges for the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.

In early September 1912, Cross ordered an ornate pin, which he received on November 4, at a cost of $15. The badge was adorned with pearls on the Lambda, and six, alternating amethysts and emeralds on the crescent, which in turn was edged with crown set opals.

Other versions may have been set with pearls around the crescent in place of the opals. A badge known as the “White Elephant” was most likely one of those made by Edwards, Haldeman Co.

The Hoover & Smith Co.

Cross and Raymond H. Ferris (Pennsylvania 1912) visited the well-known fraternity jewelry supplier of Hoover & Smith, next door to Thegen’s at 616 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 1, 1912, to obtain estimates on future badges.

Their chapter was about to initiate four new members that day and install the Pennsylvania State University chapter the following day. The eight (possibly nine) purchased Thegens badges would ultimately end up in the hands of the Penn State chapter members.

Charles I. Clegg, manager of the Fraternity Department at Hoover & Smith, worked with Mason and Ferris on an idea for a design modification Ferris had come up with the previous summer, and which Mason had sketched.

The new design featured eight close set pearls on the crescent and 11 on the Lambda, which was to be made as a separate piece and riveted to the underlying letters Chi and Alpha. The three men also experimented with the black enamel oval, changing the upper and lower convex edges to a concave shape that would fit more snugly around the two largest pearls. Thus was born the standard Lambda Chi Alpha badge as we know it today.

The first of these badges were finished on December 1, 1912. Versions with a plain Lambda also were made. Originally intended for use only at Pennsylvania, Penn State chapter members also wore the Hoover & Smith badge.

Brothers Miller, Hoffman, Rush, and Hartman were initiated on December 1, 1912. Three days later, William Richards (Pennsylvania State 1912) also was initiated. Since Brother Hartman’s crown set Hoover & Smith badge is known to exist, it would be reasonable to assume that the other four men also wore the Hoover & Smith badges. They were priced at $18 for the crown set and $14 for the model with close set pearls.

It is the Hoover & Smith badge that is depicted on Mason’s first coat of arms, engraved in late 1912 by Chas. H. Elliott, and on the final version, adding “Per Crucem Crescens,” engraved by E.A. Wright in early 1913.

By 1914, the Hoover & Smith Co. was listed as the official jeweler of Lambda Chi Alpha.

L.G. Balfour Co.

The L.G. Balfour Co., founded by Lloyd G. Balfour in 1913, made the first Lambda Chi Alpha badges for the Cornell University chapter in October of that year. The original order called for eight pins at $10 apiece. The Cornell chapter members preferred the overall quality and price over that of Hoover & Smith.

The original Balfour pins were likely copied from a Hoover & Smith sample, with the dies being superseded later on by those provided by Cole. In 1920, Balfour became the sole official jeweler of the Fraternity — a distinction it held until 1970.