The Rainbow Fraternity was founded at the University of Mississippi in 1848 or 1849 by seven students who had recently transferred from La Grange College (a now defunct college often said to have been in Tennessee, but in fact located in Alabama overlooking the Tennessee Valley).
On December 16, 1884, representatives from Rainbow and Delta Tau Delta met in Nashville, Tennessee to finalize the terms of a merger of the two fraternities, the idea of consolidation having been informally discussed for the preceding two years [REF].