John Alden was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including 176,000 female participants. The BSA was founded in 1910; about 130 million Americans have participated in its programs. Served by 477,000 adult volunteers. BSA became a founding member organization of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in supporting the American Revolution. A non-profit group, the organization promotes education and patriotism. Its membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the American Revolution era who aided the revolution and its subsequent war. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and have a birth certificate indicating that their gender is female. DAR has over 190,000 current members in the United States and other countries. The organization's motto is "God, Home, and Country".
The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and right-wing libertarian ideas. Originally based in Belmont, Massachusetts, the JBS is now headquartered in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, with local chapters throughout the United States. It owns American Opinion Publishing, Inc., which publishes the magazine The New American, and it is affiliated with an online school called FreedomProject Academy.
The National Grange, a.k.a. The Grange, officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a social organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The Grange, founded after the Civil War in 1867, is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group with a national scope. The Grange actively lobbied state legislatures and Congress for political goals, such as the Granger Laws to lower rates charged by railroads, and rural free mail delivery by the Post Office.
The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the American Revolution. Historian David C. Rapoport called the activities of the Sons of Liberty "mob terror."
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is an American congressionally chartered fraternal organization that carries out activities to preserve the history and legacy of the United States Armed Forces veterans who fought during the Civil War. It is the legal successor to the Grand Army of the Republic, the large and influential grouping of Union Army veterans that existed in the decades following the Civil War. Most SUVCW activities occur at the "Camp" or local community level. Camps are grouped into state or regional structures called "Departments". The National organization, with headquarters at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, meets annually in a National Encampment that is attended by SUVCW members, known as "Brothers", from all Camps and Departments.
ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services. Some 12,575 ASTM voluntary consensus standards operate globally. The organization's headquarters is in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, about 5 mi (8.0 km) northwest of Philadelphia.
In the United States, an honor society is an organization that recognizes individuals who excel in various domains such as academics, leadership, and other personal achievements, not all of which are based on ranking systems. These societies acknowledge excellence among peers in diverse fields and circumstances. The Order of the Arrow, for example, is the National Honor Society of the Boy Scouts of America. While the term commonly refers to scholastic honor societies, which primarily acknowledge students who excel academically or as leaders among their peers, it also applies to other types of societies.
The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), formally the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (NSSAR), is a federally chartered patriotic organization. The National Society, a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, was formed on April 30, 1889, in New York City. Its objectives are to maintain and extend "the institutions of American freedom, an appreciation for true patriotism, a respect for our national symbols, the value of American citizenship, [and] the unifying force of 'e pluribus unum' that has created, from the people of many nations, one nation and one people."
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world. Its charter was granted in March 1638 by the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay and signed by Governor John Winthrop as a volunteer militia company to train officers enrolled in the local militia companies across Massachusetts. With the professionalization of the US Military preceding World War I including the creation of the National Guard of the United States and the federalization of officer training, the company's mission changed to a supportive role in preserving the historic and patriotic traditions of Boston, Massachusetts, and the Nation. Today the Company serves as Honor Guard to the Governor of Massachusetts who is also its Commander in Chief. The headquarters is located on the 4th floor of Faneuil Hall and consists of an armory, library, offices, quartermaster department, commissary, and military museum with free admission.
The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers is a women's organization dedicated to preserving the history of the original settlers of the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret and Utah Territory, including Mormon pioneers. The organization is open to any woman who is: (1) A direct-line descendant or legally adopted direct-line descendant with a pioneer ancestor; (2) the pioneer ancestor is a person who traveled to or through the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret/Utah Territory between July 1847 and 10 May 1869 ; (3) over the age of eighteen, and of good character. Travel through the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret/Utah Territory can be either east to west, west to east, north to south, or south to north.
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is a national non-profit academic honor society for college students in the United States. NSCS has active chapters at nearly 300 colleges and universities in the United States, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The National Society Children of the American Revolution (NSCAR) is a youth organization that was founded on April 5, 1895, by Harriett Lothrop. The idea was proposed on February 22, 1895, at the Fourth Continental Congress of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The organization was promptly chartered by the United States Congress, and is now the nation's oldest and largest, patriotic youth organization. NSCAR offers membership to anyone under the age of 22 who is lineally descended from someone who served in the Continental Army or gave material aid to the cause of freedom in the American Revolution.
Friends of New Germany, sometimes called Friends of the New Germany, was an organization founded in the United States by German immigrants to support Nazism and the Third Reich.
The National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists (NSDAC), commonly known as the Daughters of the American Colonists, is an American patriotic organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1920, at St. Louis, it was federally chartered in 1984. Its object is to research and preserve the history and deeds of American colonists and commemorate deeds of colonial interest.
Eugenia Scholay Washington was an American historian, civil servant, and a founder of the lineage societies, Daughters of the American Revolution and Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America.
The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (OFPA) is a non-profit, hereditary organization based in the United States that is dedicated to promoting patriotism and preserving historical records of the first colonists and their descendants. The Order is made up of "Associates" who trace their ancestry back to colonists who settled between May 13, 1607 to May 13, 1657, and who also have ancestors in the same male ancestral line who served in the American Revolution.
Fraternities and sororities, collectively referred to as Greek Life, are social organizations at North American colleges and universities. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student but continues thereafter for life. Some accept graduate students as well. Individual fraternities and sororities vary in organization and purpose, but most share five common elements:
- Secrecy
- Single-sex membership
- Selection of new members based on a two-part vetting and probationary process known as rushing and pledging
- Ownership and occupancy of a residential property where undergraduate members live
- A set of complex identification symbols that may include Greek letters, armorial achievements, ciphers, badges, grips, hand signs, passwords, flowers, and colors
