Founding of the Phi Beta Kappa Society

Background. Before Phi Beta Kappa's founding, the College of William & Mary already hosted the F.H.C. Society, nicknamed the Flat Hat Club, founded in 1750 and recorded as the first collegiate secret society in North America. Unlike the later Greek-letter Phi Beta Kappa, the F.H.C. was a Latin-letter society whose name came from the initial letters of a Latin motto, perhaps Fraternitas, Humanitas, Cognitioque.

Organization and Motives. According to tradition, John Heath, the society's chief organizer, had earlier sought but been refused admission to the P.D.A., though he may instead have disdained to join it. His friend and fellow student William Short later wrote that, in his view, the P.D.A. had lost all reputation for letters and was noted only for the dissipation and conviviality of its members.

Character and Purpose. The founders intended the new society to be "purely of domestic manufacture, without any connection whatever with anything European, either English or German." They declared it was formed for congeniality and to promote good fellowship, with "friendship as its basis and benevolence and literature as its pillars."

Significance. As the first collegiate organization of its type to adopt a Greek-letter name, Phi Beta Kappa is generally considered a forerunner of modern college fraternities and the model for later collegiate honorary societies. It is also recognized as the oldest academic honor society in the United States.