Alpha Chi Omega

DIGITAL HISTORY

Tag : Portraits

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Alta Allen Loud Photograph

Alta Allen Loud Photograph

Alta Allen Loud (Beta, Albion College) served as National President from 1907-10 and from 1912-19.

Katherine McReynolds Morrison Portrait Photograph

Katherine McReynolds Morrison Portrait Photograph

Mary Griffith Photograph

Mary Griffith Photograph

Mary Emma Griffith Marshall (Lambda, Syracuse University) served as National Secretary from 1915-25.

Florence Lindahl Cooling Photograph

Florence Lindahl Cooling Photograph

Initiated in 1916, Florence Lindahl Cooling (Iota, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) was the first recipient of the Alumnae Appreciation Award in 1983.

Anna Allen Smith Portrait Cabinet Card

Anna Allen Smith Portrait Cabinet Card

Anna Allen Smith (Alpha, DePauw University) lived her entire life in Greencastle, Indiana, and was childhood friends with Bessie Grooms Keenan (Alpha, DePauw University and Olive (Ollie) Burnett Clark (Alpha, DePauw University). She was always interested in music and was the youngest student to do advanced work at DePauw's School of Music. She was just 15 years old when Alpha Chi Omega was founded. Anna was the Founder most associated with Alpha chapter and until her untimely death in 1932, she knew every initiated Alpha (all 700 of them).

Bertha Deniston Cunningham Portrait Cabinet Card

Bertha Deniston Cunningham Portrait Cabinet Card

When Bertha Deniston Cunningham's (Alpha, DePauw University) parents decided their musically advanced daughter should continue her studies at DePauw, she had to play for Dean Howe to determine just how advanced she was. She went on to become the envy of the school’s music students because of her composing skills. She also was an accomplished performer and successful teacher in the School of Music for 10 years. Hers is the only one of five original badges that exists today.

Bessie Grooms Keenan Portrait Reproduction Photograph

Bessie Grooms Keenan Portrait Reproduction Photograph

Bessie Grooms Keenan (Alpha, DePauw University) began studying music as a young child and was an accomplished pianist by the time she entered DePauw. Near the end of her first year there, she strained the muscles of her left hand from over-practice and had to give up the ambition of her life. However, she gave much of her time to help build Alpha Chi Omega. Her daughter, Hannah Keenan, eventually became director of Alpha Chi’s central office, today known as headquarters.

Estelle Leonard Portrait Photograph, c. 1886

Estelle Leonard Portrait Photograph, c. 1886

Estelle Leonard (Alpha, DePauw University) entered university hoping to make a living as a musician. Most of her time was spent practicing or studying. She also served as Dean Howe’s secretary for two years. Though she had serious goals and a “dignified appearance,” she was known for playing practical jokes on her colleagues. She graduated in 1891 and had a full career, teaching music, publishing piano compositions and reporting for the local newspaper. Long involved with Alpha Chi Omega, she attended more conventions than any other Founder. She was described in our 1948 History as “distinctly modern in her ideas” and as having “developed independence, decision, and a rather bohemian attitude.”

Martha Hannegan Portrait Photograph, 1985

Martha Hannegan Portrait Photograph, 1985

Martha Carolan Hannegan (Omicron, Baker University) served as National President from 1980-83.

Alta Allen Loud Portrait Photograph, c. 1900

Alta Allen Loud Portrait Photograph, c. 1900

Alta Allen Loud (Beta, Albion College) served as National President from 1907-10 and from 1912-19.

Mary Ayres Portrait Photograph

Mary Ayres Portrait Photograph

Advertising executive Mary Andrews Ayres (Alpha Lambda, University of Minnesota) won the Award of Achievement in 1978.

Mildred Scott Portrait Photograph, c. 1949-53

Mildred Scott Portrait Photograph, c. 1949-53

Mildred Estabrook Scott (Pi, University of California, Berkeley) served as National President from September 1949 until September 1953.

Martha Baird Portrait Photograph, c. 1916

Martha Baird Portrait Photograph, c. 1916

Martha Baird (Zeta, New England Conservatory) was initiated in 1915. She placed first in the conservatory’s annual piano competition and then graduated summa cum laude from the conservatory's soloist program. That same year (1917), she made her debut in recital at Jordan Hall in Boston on November 17, garnering solid reviews from the arts sections of major newspapers, including The Boston Globe. She then pursued further advanced studies in Berlin, Germany with the legendary pianist Artur Schnabel. Her third and final marriage – to John D. Rockefeller Jr. – enabled her to take her philanthropic work to even greater heights. On the day of her marriage (August 15, 1951) she was given a sizable trust fund by Rockefeller, which she used to establish the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music in 1957. When her third husband died in 1960, she then redirected a significant portion of her $48 million inheritance to that fund. In operation until 1982, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music provided critical scholarship and grant support to solo artists and ensembles for a quarter of a century before it was dissolved.

Anna Minerva Tarr Portrait Photograph

Anna Minerva Tarr Portrait Photograph

Initiate of Beta (Albion College)

Ethel Van Auken Photograph, September 1928

Ethel Van Auken Photograph, September 1928

Ethel Mead Van Auken (Lambda, Syracuse University) served as National President from 1928-35.

Mary Janet Wilson Portrait Photograph

Mary Janet Wilson Portrait Photograph

Mary Janet Wilson (Alpha, DePauw University) served as national president from 1896-98. She was the first alumna to serve as president of Alpha Chi Omega.

Shawn Donnelley Photograph

Shawn Donnelley Photograph

Portrait of 1997-2006 Foundation Trustee Shawn Donnelley (Zeta Psi, Loyola University New Orleans); she founded the Shawn Margaret Donnelley Scholarship Fund.

Amy DuBois Rieth Portrait Cabinet Card

Amy DuBois Rieth Portrait Cabinet Card

Amy Dubois Rieth (Alpha, DePauw University) was only 15 when she entered DePauw. She studied both voice and pianoforte. She was known as “the little girl with the big voice,” and was selected to sing important roles in school productions. Amy had a quiet and straightforward manner, which belied her fondness for pulling pranks on her Fraternity sisters. Her influence on the Fraternity endured long after she left to teach music in Kansas.

Nellie Gamble Childe Portrait Cabinet Card, c. 1886

Nellie Gamble Childe Portrait Cabinet Card, c. 1886

Nellie Gamble Childe (Alpha, DePauw University) studied piano from an early age and, after much deliberation, chose DePauw. She was described variously by her sisters as being gentle, energetic, earnest and friendly, leading a life of “quiet influence for good.” Later in life, she cultivated roses and loved to garden. She said that Alpha Chi Omega had a small beginning, but was built by loyal women with high standards who have achieved “marvelous results.”

Olive Burnett Clark Portrait Cabinet Card

Olive Burnett Clark Portrait Cabinet Card

Olive Burnett Clark (Alpha, DePauw University) grew up in Greencastle, Indiana before eventually moving to Indianapolis, Indiana. She set the example for grace, civility and dignity that defined the Fraternity.