Pi Gamma Mu was founded in 1924 by Dean Leroy Allen from Southwestern
College in Kansas and Dean William A. Hamilton of the College
of William and Mary in Virginia. Seventeen founding chapters were organized
simultaneously. SOCIAL SCIENCE was established as a quarterly journal in
1925. With the beginning of Volume 57 in 1982, the name of the journal
was changed to INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW. Publication of the
PI GAMMA MU NEWSLETTER began in 1978.
Rear Admiral Richard Byrd served for a time as Honorary National
President of Pi Gamma Mu, in 1928 carrying the Society's flag to the Antarctic.
Two presidents of the Philippines were members of the Society; one U. S.
president joined as a student--Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Society was incorporated under the name "The National Social
Science Honor Society, Pi Gamma Mu, Inc." on April 5, 1929 as a non-profit
corporation in Colorado. To acknowledge its chapters outside the U. S.,
the Board of Trustees took action in 1980 to change the name of the Society
to "Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Science."
The 1987 constitution provides for triennial conventions, with
each chapter eligible to send a delegation. The convention is vested with
the supreme authority of the Society. During the convention, delegates
elect two student representatives to the Board of Trustees, which exercises
administrative power between conventions. Members of the Board of Trustees
are elected by the chapters for three year terms. Five chancellors oversee
regions made up of several provinces. The provinces are headed by governors
who lend support and assistance to the collegiate chapters under their
jurisdiction. Each chapter, under the direction of faculty officers, plans
its own programs and specific areas of service.
In 1993, the Society moved its headquarters in Winfield, Kansas
to the Carnegie Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic
Buildings.
