Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities

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Baird's Manual of American College Fraternites is a compendium of fraternities and sororities in the United States and Canada first published in 1879. It covers national and international general (social), professional, and honor fraternities, including defunct organizations, with an overview of each society's history and traditions, ideals and symbols, and membership information. The 20th and most recent edition, published in 1991, was over 1200 pages long.

The text is named for William Raimond Baird (1848-1917), an 1878 graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology who exhaustively researched other organizations seeking a suitable partner to merge with his own Alpha Sigma Chi.[1] (in the event, he selected Beta Theta Pi, which absorbed ΑΣΧ in 1879). As no authoritative resource on the subject existed, Baird published his research for the benefit of the public as American College Fraternities.

Baird and Beta Theta Pi held the rights for some time before selling them to George Banta, publisher of Banta's Greek Exchange. The Banta Publishing Company of Menasha, Wisconsin released several editions before spinning the publication off to the Baird's Manual Foundation, which published editions in 1977 and 1991.

The North-American Interfraternity Conference, the current rights holder, does not intend to publish additional editions in paper format. They intend that in either 2008 or 2009 for an electronic version of the Manual to be published, with quarterly updates for a fee. ^[1]

[edit] Editions

1. 1879, William Baird, ed.
2. 1880, William Baird, ed.
3. 1883, William Baird, ed.
4. 1890, William Baird, ed.
5. 1898, William Baird, ed.
6. 1905, William Baird, ed.
7. 1915, William Baird, ed.
8. 1916, William Baird, ed.
9. 1920, James T. Brown, ed.
10. 1923, James T. Brown, ed.
11. 1927, Francis Wayland Shepardson, ed.
12. 1930, Francis Wayland Shepardson, ed.
13. 1935, Francis Wayland Shepardson, ed.
14. 1940, Alvan E. Duerr, ed.
15. 1949, Harold J. Baily, ed.
16. 1957, George Starr Lasher, ed.
17. 1963, John Robson, ed.
18. 1968, John Robson, ed.
19. 1977, John Robson, ed.
20. 1991, Jack L. Anson, Robert F. Marchesani, Jr., eds., ISBN 0-9637159-0-9

[edit] References

[edit] Related links

• Obtaining the Baird's Manual