ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA.

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Scrapbook recording sorority activities at West Virginia State College, an HBCU. A handcrafted record of Earline Martin's membership of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), the first Greek-letter sorority established by Black women. The scrapbook binding is carved from wood in the AKA motif of an ivy leaf and the front cover and pages are carefully decorated in Martin's hand. The contents include manuscript biographical information on AKA members, Martin's recruitment letter, and other sorority ephemera. AKA was founded in 1908 at Howard University by nine students under the motto "By Culture and by Merit". Chapters at other universities soon followed, including the Nu chapter at West Virginia State College (WVSC), which Martin joined in 1950. At the time, West Virginia was segregated, and WVSC served Black students; it is now classified as an HBCU. Martin's pokerwork to the front cover shows the WVSC campus, surrounded by AKA insignia and ivy leaf motifs. Admission into AKA was highly selective and rigorous. Several ornamental pages show short biographies of its members, which demonstrate the high standard of academic ability and social grace required. Recruits also had to possess a detailed understanding of the organization's history, as demonstrated in Martin's lists of the founders. Members of the AKA had access to the wider, intercollegiate sorority community. Martin's scrapbook contains several clippings, possibly taken from the sorority newsletter The Ivy Leaf, detailing the achie

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