Meyer earns a Key

Meyer continued to work hard at his studies and received high grades in all of his courses. In 1909, his second year, he received his key to the law honor society Chi Tau Kappa. This was the equivalent to Phi Beta Kappa key in the academic fields. Since we all saw my grandfather's key, daily on the vest of his suits, this was a familiar image. Recently, as I was sorting through a box of odds and ends, it was a total surprise to find the key Meyer had earned. Below is a photograph of the front and back of Meyer's pristine, almost never worn, key.

I went in search of the history of this honor society and found the beginning in a Yale Law Journal from 1908. Below is the page that I found and the transcription of the entry below it.

SCHOOL AND ALUMNI NOTES

At a recent meeting of the Law School honorary society of Chi Tau Kappa, held at Hendrie Hall, Chief Justice Baldwin of Connecticut delivered an address to the new members, explaining the aims and objects of the organization and reasons for its maintenance. At this meeting, the society, which had heretofore been in an embryo state only, was fully organized and plans laid to make the chapter at Yale the mother chapter of an organization which will have chapters in every important law school in the country. The society was founded on April 22, 1908, to take the place in the Law School filled by Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi in the Academic and Scientific departments, respectively. Every man who has an honor stand, which is the official mark of excellent scholarship in the Law School, is eligible to membership.


When this society became official in 1908 both Charles and Joe received their keys retroactively for the academic excellence they both achieved in their time at Yale.