Founding of Phi Beta Kappa at Raleigh Tavern

On December 5, 1776, five students at the College of William & Mary gathered in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern and founded a student literary and philosophical society. They named it Phi Beta Kappa — from the Greek phrase "philosophy, the guide of life." It was the first Greek-letter organization in American higher education.

The founding in the midst of the Revolution's first year was not incidental. The students consciously connected their intellectual project to the revolutionary moment. Phi Beta Kappa's founding documents emphasized free inquiry and rational discourse — the same values animating the political arguments being made in the Capitol building down the street. The organization spread to other colleges after the Revolution and became America's most prestigious academic honor society.