Bumping to share that at
this University of California Digital Library page, you can download (for free) Ida Shaw Martin's
The Sorority Handbook (3rd ed. 1909) in pdf, epub, kindle and other formats. You can also get the google books version
here (same UC archives copy).
It really is a fascinating read, especially when you see how many of the sororities had fewer than 1000 members total. I didn't keep count, but I think Pi Phi was the largest group at 5200 total members.
And I was interested to see a separate section on "Musical Sororities," which included discussion of Alpha Chi Omega (by then "Musical-Literary") and Mu Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Iota and Phi Mu Epsilon (which merged with Mu Phi Epsilon). There is also a section on "Medical Sororities" (Alpha Epsilon Iota, Epsilon Tau and Zeta Phi).
But I think my favorite part was this description of the Phi Mu badge: "The badge is an oddly shaped shield of black enamel dispaying in the centre a hand holding a heart."
Now if I could only find digital versions of Emily Butterfield's
College Fraternity Heraldry.
