Sigma Nu Phi (ΣΝΦ), also known as Adelphia Sigma Nu Phi, was a professional law fraternity and a member of the Professional Fraternity Association.^[1][2]

Adelphia Sigma Nu Phi was founded in 1903 by students and faculty of National University School of Law in Washington, D.C.^[3][4] Its founders wanted to create a Greek letter law fraternity for men that would be a modern version of the English Order of the Coif.^{[5][lower-alpha 1]} The fraternity was incorporated in the District of Columbia on February 12, 1903.^[5] Its founders and incoporators were :^[5][6][7]

Eugene Carusi was dean of the School of Law and Charles Carusi and Richard Shipp were faculty members.^[7]

The purpose of Sigma Nu Phi was to improve legal education, promote professional ethics and culture, and establish a bond of brotherhood.^[6] The fraternity selected a seal, insignia, and design for a ring in February 1903, entering these with the Librarian of Congress.^[8] Its membership was limited to students, alumni, and faculty of law schools.^[4][7] The fraternity's member types or degrees were apprentice, sergeant, and magistrate.^[5][8] Members of other fraternities were not eligible to join Sigma Nu Phi.^[4]

Soon after it was chartered, the fraternity had applications for chapters at Columbian University, Georgetown University, Indianapolis College of Law, Tulane University, the University of Kansas, and the University of Pennsylvania.^[8] It had six chapters by the end of January 1904.^[9] In May 1906, the Alpha chapter moved into its chapter house on 1016 Thirteenth Street Northwest.^[10][2][11]

Sometime after 1911, the Alpha chapter declined and went inactive. It was revived in February 1915 with the aid of faculty who were fraternity members.^[12][13] New members were initiated into the Alpha chapter in March.^[14][15] Members and alumni celebrated the chapter's revival at a function held in April 1915.^[16][13]

In December 1915, the Alpha chapter began discussing acquiring a new chapter house.^[17][18] Plans were also underway to establish chapters at Georgetown University Law School and George Washington University Law School; the former had a chapter previously that went dormant.^[17][18] The Washington, D.C. Alumni chapter held a joint organizational meeting on March 20, 1916.^[19][20]

Sigma Nu Phi was one of the chartering fraternities of the Professional Interfraternity Conference in 1928 and its president Major Jarvis Butler served as its first president.^[21]

In 1953, the fraternity had 24 chapters.^[22] However, there were only five active chapters in 1963.^[5] Sigma Nu Phi merged into Delta Theta Phi (ΔΘΦ) in 1989.^[1] Delta Theta Phi accepted all Sigma Nu Phi members and took over publishing The Adelphia Law Journal.^[1][23]

Sigma Nu Phi's colors were purple and gold.^[5][24] Its banner was made of purple and old rose silk.^[8] Its flower was the white carnation.^[5][24] Its jewels were the sapphire and the diamond.^[8] Its symbols were the axe, the key, and the owl.

The Sigma Nu Phi crest includes a cluster of three carnations, an Arabian lamp, an open book, and a crossed battle axe and key, flanked on both sides by an owl and surrounded by a legal scroll.^[24] The Sigma Nu Phi coat of arms was designed by Balfour and Company and adopted by the fraternity in 1921.^[25] It incorporated the symbols of the fraternity's great seal.^[25]

When it was first established, Sigma Nu Phi members wore a ring instead of a badge.^[8] It was a gold signet ring, featuring the fraternity's crest with an owl on either side.^[8] The ring had three sapphires, representing the three classes or degrees of members, and four diamonds, representing the fraternity's four declarations.^[8] A similar watch seal was also designed.^[8]

Members wore purple gowns, based on judicial robes, with an old rose and gold girdle.^[8] The right sleeve was decorated with the fraternity's crest and the left sleeve indicated the wearer's membership degree.^[8]

The fraternity's badge was a circle of purple enamel with the Greek letters ΣΝΦ above a lamp; it was encircled by pearls and featured an owl perched on an open book at the top of the circle.^[5] Before 1921, some chapters had a pin or guard that consisted of its Greek letter, surrounded in pearls, that was worn attached to the badge.^[26] However, the fraternity stated that these were forbidden in November 1921.^[26] A variant without the pearls was issued by the fraternity in 1934.^[5]

The Sigma Nu Phi pledge button was a gold owl that had jeweled eyes that was worn on the left lapel.^[5][27] Pledge pins were loaned to pledges and returned to the chapter after the brother's initiation.^[27]In addition, the fraternity had a recognition button that was a replica of its coat of arms.^[5] It also issued a scholarship key to the members of each chapter with the highest grade point average in their class.^[5]

In March 1915, the Alpha chapter's initiation included marching the initiates down H Street to Fourteenth Street, and onto New York Avenue in what one newspaper called "a parade in grotesque" costumes".^[14][15] The initiation also included a slapstick, a seizer bottle, and an electric battery.^[14]

The fraternity started publishing a newspaper, The Declaration, in late February 1903.^[8] In 1916, Sigma Nu Phi started publishing The Owl magazine quarterly.^[5] It also published The Adelphia on an irregular basis starting in 1925; in 1981, it became The Adelphia Law Journal, an authoritatively recognized law review.^[23][5] The fraternity also published a seven members directories between 1916 and 1956.^[5]

The original Alpha chapter house was locatied at 1016 Thirteenth Street Northwest.^[10][2] It was built in the 1870s for David Kellogg Cartter, former chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and was later the home of Senator William Alexander Harris.^[11][28] It was three blocks from the National Law School buidilng.^[10] Its lower level of the chapter house was decorted with hand-carved black walnut and included reading rooms, clubrooms, and space for programs and social events.^[29][2][28] The upper floors were used as a residence for students of the National University Law School.^[28]

In March 1921, Alpha chapter had a newly furnished chapter house at 1654 Columbia Road.^[30] In May 1923, it moved to a new chapter house at 1752 N Street Northwest.^[31]

Chapter officers were called chancellor, first vice-chancellor, second vice-chancellor, master of rolls, registrar, and crier.^[32] Nationally, Sigma Nu Phi was governed by a high court of chancery which met annually, and an elected executive council.^[5][24]

Its headquarters was originally located in Washington, D.C., and later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[5][33][19]

• Richard H. Alvey (Alpha Honorary), chief judge of the Supreme Court of Maryland and chief justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia^[8]
• James M. Beck (Honorary), U.S. Solicitor General and U.S. House of Representatives^[3]
• Theodore M. Brantley (Delta First, Honorary), Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court^[71]
• Theodore Brentano (Alpha Honorary), attorney, judge, and U.S. ambassador to Hungary^[8]
• Joseph H. Choate (Beta Honorary), United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom^[32]
• George B. Davis (Alpha Honorary), Judge Advocate General of the United States Army^[8]
• Herbert J. Drane (Honorary), U.S. House of Representatives^[3]
• Duncan U. Fletcher (Honorary), U.S. Senator^[3]
• Melville Fuller (Alpha Honorary), Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court^[8]
• George Gray (Alpha Honorary), United States Senator and a United States circuit judge^[8]
• Oliver Wendell Holmes (Alpha Honorary), U.S. Supreme Court justice^[3][8]
• Charles Evans Hughes (Beta Honorary), Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court^[32]
• Frank E. Irvine (Alpha Honorary), federal judge and dean of Cornell Law School^[3][8]
• Calvin Ira Kephart, lawyer and hearing examiner with the Interstate Commerce Commission and law professor at George Washington University^[3]
• John W. Kern (Indiana Alpha), United States Senator^[72]
• Arthur J. Lacy (Gamma Honorary), attorney, judge, professor, and mayor of Clare, Michigan^[50]
• Paul Lessinoff (Honorary), Bulgarian Chargé d'affaires to the United States
• Oscar Raymond Luhring (Honorary), U.S. House of Representatives and Associate Justice of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia.^[3]
• David J. Mays (Zeta), lawyer and writer
• Samuel McGowan (Honorary), Rear Admiral and Paymaster General of the United States Navy^[73]
• Frank S. Monnett (Alpha Honorary), Ohio Attorney General^[8]
• Abram F. Myers (Beta), chair of the Federal Trade Commission^[32]
• Samuel J. Nicholls (Beta Honorary), U.S. House of Representatives^[74]
• Samuel W. Pennypacker (Alpha Honorary), Governor of Pennsylvania^[32][8]
• Theodore Roosevelt (Alpha Honorary), President of the United States^[32][8][75]
• George Shiras Jr. (Alpha Honorary), U.S. Supreme Court justice^[8]
• Frederick Lincoln Siddons (Alpha), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia^[76][77]
• John R. Saunders (Zeta Honorary), Attorney General of Virginia and Senate of Virginia^[69]
• William Howard Taft, President of the United States^[73]
• Hannis Taylor (Beta Honorary), United States Ambassador to Spain^[32]
• David I. Walsh (Beta Honorary), Governor of Massachusetts and United States Senate^[74]
• David K. Watson (Alpha Honorary), U.S. House of Representatives and Ohio Attorney General^[8]
• Edward Douglas White (Beta Honorary), Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court^[32][73]