In 1897, ten seniors at the University of Maine, envisioning a society whose membership would be open to the superior college student, regardless of the academic discipline engaging him or her were assisted by interested members of the faculty in organizing the Lambda Sigma Eta Society. A year or so later, the name was changed to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of the Congressional Act which provided for land-grant colleges. In 1900, the presidents of the University of Maine, the Pennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania State University), and the University of Tennessee pledges their support, and the society thus became national with three chapters. It was renamed Phi Kappa Phi from the initial letters of three classical Greek words forming its adopted motto: Let the love of learning rule mankind.

Currently there are more than 270 chapter of Phi Kappa Phi scattered from Maine to Hawaii and the Philippines and from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

The badge of this society is a globe against the background of the sun, whose rays form an expansive corona and radiate in a number of symmetrical and equal concentrations from behind the globe. These signify equivalence among the various branches of learning and represent dissemination of truth as light. Encircling the globe is up and containing Greek letters phi kappa phi and symbolizing in a fraternal bond which girds the earth and binds the lover of wisdom in a common purpose.

The seal of the society has at its center the Badge. This in turn is surrounded by a crenellated line which represents the battlements and walls of Troy and which symbolizes a technical aspect of the ancient Greek culture reflected by the Society. In the space between this line in the periphery of the seal appears three stars just below the Badge, one for each of the three original chapters. Just below the Badge is the phrase, "Founded 1897"

The ribbon of the Society is a meander pattern which is common in ancient Greek art and thus symbolizes the classical features of the Society.