Phi Kappa Phi was founded at the University of Maine in 1897. The University of Tennessee joined with the University of Maine in 1899 in an effort to form a new national honor society not limited to students in the fields of arts, letters, and humanities, as was Phi Beta Kappa. In 1900 UT was one of the chartering three members of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honorary Society. The first president of the UT chapter was Dr. Charles Dabney.