Fr o m t he A r chives S T R AT E G I C G O A L A R E A
Exemplify
From the archives
The expansion of Presidents’ Day BY JENNIFER MCNABB, PH.D., ΓΜ, NATIONAL HISTORIAN Each February, the country recognizes its presidents with a national holiday, originally designed to honor the first President of the United States, George Washington. It is fitting in this issue to honor the first Grand President of Alpha Sigma Alpha, Edna Venable Elcan Jones of Alpha Chapter.
Edna Venable Elcan Jones, A, in 1903.
Among the special guests at the golden anniversary convention: first national president Edna Venable Elcan Jones, A, left, with Wilma Wilson Sharp, ZZ.
32 Phoenix of Alpha Sigma Alpha
First, a bit of background: the holiday we now call Presidents’ Day had a long trajectory to its current status, identity and even its date. Following George Washington’s death in 1799, citizens of the newly-formed United States commemorated the first president each year on February 22, the anniversary of his birth. Those celebrations were accorded higher status in 1879 when Washington’s birthday was designated as a federal holiday, although the holiday was recognized only within the District of Columbia. Not until 1885 did the observance of the holiday, the first to honor an individual American, spread throughout the country. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act, passed in 1968 and implemented in 1971, gave the celebration its current date. Rather than commemorate Washington on his actual birthdate, the holiday was fixed on the third Monday of February, as part of a plan to create more three-day holiday weekends. Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day were also moved to Mondays in the same Act. The shift
away from Washington’s birthday allowed the holiday to take on a more expansive significance. It has been powerfully linked with celebrations of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12 and has also come to be seen as an opportunity to honor all of the country’s presidents as well as the office of the presidency itself. The woman who would become Alpha Sigma Alpha’s first Grand President was born in 1882, just a few years before Washington ’s birthday became a national holiday. Edna Venable Elcan was initiated as a member of Alpha Chapter at then Longwood College in Farmville, VA, at the age of 19 on Jan. 29, 1903, just fourteen months after the Sorority’s founding. The first initiation of Alpha, with a class of three new members, had taken place three weeks earlier. Edna’s own initiation, with three other new members, was followed by a momentous event in the history of the Sorority. Just two weeks later, on February 13, 1903, Alpha Sigma Alpha was chartered in the Circuit Court of Prince Edward County, Virginia, an act that marked the crucial first step to making Alpha Sigma Alpha a national sorority. Edna herself was among the thirteen signers of the articles of incorporation. The coming months and years would witness significant expansion for Alpha Sigma Alpha. Two more initiations were held for Alpha Chapter in the spring of 1903, and in the fall, Beta Chapter was established at Greenbrier College for Women in Lewisburg, WV. Gamma would follow in the spring of 1904, at College
