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Colby College in Waterville, Maine, was the first college in New England to admit women on an equal basis with men students. The first woman student was admitted in 1871, and for two years Mary Caffrey Low Carver was the only woman student at Colby College. In 1873, four more young women from Maine, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller, Frances Mann Hall, and Louise Helen Coburn were admitted to Colby and the five young women found themselves frequently together. During that very same school year, the five young women decided to form a literary and social society. They were told by the college administration that they needed to present a constitution and bylaws with a petition requesting permission to form Sigma Kappa Sorority. They began work during that year with an eager glow of enthusiasm. Their purpose at the outset was that the sorority should become what it is now, a national organization of college women. On November 9, 1874, the five young women received a letter from the faculty approving their petition. Thus, this date has since been considered our Founders' Day.
The original chapter of Sigma Kappa, or the "Alpha Chapter" was limited to only 25 members. Soon enough, both a Beta and a Gamma chapter were set up on Colby's campus. However, it was then decided to initiate the complete 25 members into the Alpha chapter and the Beta and Gamma chapters of Sigma Kappa disappeared from Colby's campus. It was at this time the members of Sigma Kappa decided they needed to stretch further than the boundaries set by the walls of Colby College.
In 1904, the dreams of expanding Sigma Kappa past Colby College came true. Elydia Foss of Alpha chapter had transferred to Boston and met a group of women who refused to join any of the other groups on campus. When asked if Sigma Kappa was a national organization, Elydia replied, "No, but it is founded on a national basis." Miss Foss then took the necessary steps to make Sigma Kappa a National chapter and became so on April 19, 1904.
Founders
 | Mary Caffrey Low was the first woman to attend Colby College, the first name on the roll of Sigma Kappa, and the first to preside at an Initiation. She graduated in 1875 at the top of her class. At that time, it was not customary for a female to give the valedictory or salutatory address; instead, she gave the Class Prophecy. After graduation, she married Leonard D. Carver and taught school. Her daughter, Ruby, was initiated into the Alpha Chapter of Sigma Kappa Sorority. Throughout her life, she gave her talents and wit to the women of Sigma Kappa by extending the Sorority beyond Colby College and assisting with Delta/Omicron Chapter initiation banquets until her death in 1926 at the age of 76. |
 | Elizabeth Gorham Hoag entered Colby College when she was only 17 years old. She was a very conscientious student who loved languages and literature. She designed the first Sigma Kappa emblem, but grew ill with tuberculosis during the winter of her sophomore year. She lingered through the spring and died in 1875 at the age of 18. She was mourned by her sisters. |
 | Ida May Fuller decided to go to Colby College at the age of 20, despite her brother's wishes. She was a dynamic, inquiring, social-minded woman who refused to, in her own words, "accept her sex as irrefutable condemnation to a subordinate position in life." Ida was the practical voice of the sorority, always bringing the dreamers back down to earth. She left college in her junior year and traveled to Kansas where she married Dr. Pierce, became a successful businesswoman, founded a hotel for girls in Kansas City, and was vice president of a bank. |
 | Louise Helen Coburn was a scholar, writer, poet, and the second woman to graduate from Colby College. Louise wrote the constitution and bylaws, and much of our initiation ceremony. She had many relatives as fellow sisters in the Mystic Bond, including her sister, two nieces, and her nephew's wife. She became bedridden as she aged, and ended one of her final letters, "May the loving spirit of Sigma Kappa continue to guide you," before she died at the age of 93 in 1949. |
 | Frances Mann entered Colby College in her early 20's after already pursuing a teaching career. She met her husband, George Washington Hall, at college and was proud to be the first married Sigma Kappa. Frances proposed the name Sigma Kappa, the secret ideal on which our sorority is founded, and much of the symbolism of our ritual. She left college in her junior year due to headaches, but continued to teach with her husband. She attended Sigma Kappa conventions in 1928 and 1933, before passing away in 1935. Her last message was, "Take my love to all the chapters. God bless them." |
Symbols & Insignia
The symbols and insignia of Sigma Kappa are outward signs of the special feeling we have for each other that comes from within ourselves.Members of Sigma Kappa are obligated to uphold her high standards and ideals, remembering that Sigma Kappas all over the country are bound by the same tenets.
Colors
Louise Helen Coburn's early reminiscences give us her memory of white as the color favored in the early days of Sigma Kappa. She said that lavender and maroon, as our colors, occur in the minutes of June 1891. They were being used then and apparently had been approved earlier. A note in the minutes of 1904 speaks of a committee appointed to "write down the true significance" of our colors which is revealed in the ceremony of initiation.
Flower
Violets were loved by all Sigma Kappas from the beginning. The delicate flowers grew wild along the banks of the Messalonskee River where the founders sat and dreamed of Sigma Kappa.
In June 1892, the violet was adopted as our official flower. The flower was thought to belong to the days of promise as is Sigma Kappa.
Symbols
The dove was accepted as an official symbol of Sigma Kappa at the 1984 convention and the heart was adopted at the 1988 convention. Both symbols signify the love felt by members across the country.
Coat-of-Arms
The Sigma Kappa coat-of-arms reflects the familiar symbols of the sorority - the dove, the violet, the Greek letters, and maroon and lavender. Adopted in 1911, the coat-of-arms consists of a maroon shield with a diagonal bar of gold, bearing five lavender stars; the lower portion a coiled serpent. Above is a wreath of alternate maroon and gold, surmounted by a dove in silver, with outspread wings, all beneath an arch of gold rays. Below is a scroll of silver, bearing in black the open motto and the date 1874. The significance of the coat-of-arms is revealed only during the ceremony of Initiation.
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