History
The interest in Sigma Chi history has grown significantly in recent years. Every day, The Sigma Chi Historical Initiative receives calls for information on the history of the Fraternity. Until recently, the archives’ primary customer was The Magazine of Sigma Chi, and to some extent, the other members of the staff of Sigma Chi headquarters here in Evanston, Illinois. As news of the establishment of a formal historical program at HQ has become widely known, however, there are more and more requests for information from the membership-at-large and from outside the Fraternity. With that in mind, the Sigma Chi Historical Initiative designed this website to be a clearing house of historical information about Sigma Chi.
Because there are many brothers who work to preserve the Fraternity’s history, below you will find a paragraph or two describing each of their functions.
Under the direction of Noah Phelps, Ph.D., NORTHWESTERN 2008, The Sigma Chi Historical Initiative (hereafter, The Initiative) acts as the clearing house for historical information on Sigma Chi and associated entities. The Initiative manages and provides access to the archives, performs limited research requests, and can also offer photo replication of images in the collection. The Initiative’s primary mission, however, is to survey the Fraternity twenty historical collections, assure their long-term stability, and make them accessible to the membership and others. This process is done in three phases: Phase One requires that each artifact is inspected to identify damage or environmental issues, labeled, sorted as required, then rehoused in a way to assure longevity. Phase Two is the digitization or photo-documentation of each artifact. Phase Three is an item-by-item catalogue. It is estimated that there are well-over 210,000 artifacts in the overall collection, which contains documents, ephemera, 3-dimensional items, photos, artworks, and other items.
Additionally, The Initiative staff functions as the curators of the Chuck and Kim Watson Museum of Sigma Chi located on the first floor of the J. Dwight Peterson Headquarters building in Evanston, Illinois; and provides historical support to The Magazine of Sigma Chi, and other departments at Headquarters, as well as to the general public. The Initiative also maintains the History pages of this website and the Codex Sigma Chi Database, while will be available online later in 2025.
The offices of The Sigma Chi Historical Initiative are located in the J. Dwight Peterson International Headquarters building. For more information on The Sigma Chi Historical Initiative, click below. to
The History & Archives Commission’s (hereafter, The Commission) primary functions is to preserve the legacy of our great brotherhood and develop programs to educate the brothers on the History of Sigma Chi. In that role, The Commission is the primary consultant to the Sigma Chi Historical Initiative, guiding it work in identifying documents and other artifacts to be preserved. The Commission also seeks to promote the history of the Fraternity to the membership through the web, social media, and publications. 22nd (current) Grand Historian, Dr. Michael Codina, CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO 1993, oversees the History Group on the Facebook platform. In 2009, the commission released the first of several planned books marking the rebirth of the Commission’s publishing program. That book, One in Heart and Purpose seeks to be the definitive historical resource concerning the Founders and the Founding of Sigma Chi. Since then, the Commission has also produced a “A Condensed History of the Sigma Chi Fraternity,” compiled by 65th Grand Consul, Robert H.W. Jones, RENSSELAER 1973, in 2022, and in 2025, Grand Historian Codina produced Volume 5 of the ongoing History of Sigma Chi series began by Dr. Joseph Cookman Nate, ILLINOIS-WESLEYAN 1890, in the early 1920s.
Member contributions from brothers and chapter or pledge class fundraising projects help to insure the perpetual care of the Fraternity’s major monuments, memorials and historical sites in a program sponsored by the Sigma Chi Foundation. These monuments and sites are:
The Chapter Archives functions on a local level in the same way as the international level committees listed above. The brother in charge, the Chapter Historian, gathers and makes a permanent record of members and activities in the form of a scrapbook or chapter history. He preserves the library, historical records and properties of the chapter. The Chapter Historian also furnishes the Grand Historian with chapter information and assists in the preparation of historical material for Fraternity publications.