[BetaIotaDZ]

First - The ADPi badge pictured earlier on 8/13/18 is AMAZING. Clemsongirl what did site did you use to put the picture on so you could share it on Greek Chat?

Second – Kilarney Rose – so glad you started this thread. Your Delta Zeta badge, while technically the same for all members, is not always the same. The national president's badge has diamond studded wings (wings of Mercury by the way). This was first authorized in the 1970s.

There have been changes to the jewelling and design of the badge over the years. Delta Zeta’s Roman lamp badge was designed by a friend of founder Alfa Lloyd's, Arthur Bairnsfather. His design was based on specifications of Alfa and one of the earliest members or our sorority, Mayme Barger. Young Mr. Bairnsfather worked for Newman's Jeweler for a time and later became a well known mural artist. So for DZ you can forget the Tiffany's urban legends so many GLOs share. I would love to share a picture of Mr. Bairnsfather and the badge he designed, but I need to know how to load pictures here.

That first badge had a flush mounted diamond in the "flame" of the lamp and the lamp was set on an ionic column carried by the wings of Mercury. There were no pearls in the original badge (1902 - 1905). Because of this difference, the design at the base of the lamp where it rested on the ionic column was also different than it is today. Our four pearls were added to the badge after Delta Zeta came back in 1907. (A story I would like to share in October, before Founders’ Day, on the Delta Zeta thread of Greek Chat.) When the four pearls were added the jewelers used a crown set mounting in the original badge design just below the lamp and crowding the top of the ionic column. Within a few years the design was modified, redesigning the ionic column and adding a space above it for four flush mounted pearls. In her 1952 history, Grace Mason Lundy credits Burr, Patterson and Auld with this improvement to the design. A few years after this, a tiffany mounting for the diamond in the flame of the lamp was given as a design option for initiates.

In the 1920s and 1930s an alumna badge was authorized. This badge was most like the bling options members of other GLOs have in that an alumna was allowed to wear the badge with four diamonds at the base of the lamp ILO the four pearls. Just diamonds, no variety of stones. This design change was "retracted" before the sorority's golden anniversary. One reason given was to return the badge to a uniform meaning for all members, but it is likely that the expense of adding diamonds was just not widely embraced by alumnae. Again, in the 1970's, additional diamonds were added to the badge but only for the national president.