Delta Tau Delta is an international college fraternity. It was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. In the early years of the fraternity, chapter names were assigned, removed, and reassigned in rapid succession. There are at least two incidents of the same name being issued simultaneously. Other chapters selected names and began operating without authorization from the national fraternity; while some were eventually authorized, others were disbanded. All records from Alpha Prime were lost; Alpha Third was lax in record keeping and ended in scandal. As a result, there are information gaps, especially from 1858 to 1875.
In 1877, James Eaton constructed a multi-part history of the fraternity for the Crescent magazine from his memory as the founder of multiple chapters, from the fraternity's records, and interviews with living chapter founders. He documented chapters and name changes that were unknown to William Raimond Baird when he published the first edition of his Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities in 1879. For example, Baird lists Mount Union College as Sigma Second but does not list Sigma Prime or the two other Sigma chapters that predated Mount Union. Baird also lists charter dates, but leaves the institution's name blank in some instances. Eaton often fills in those blanks, but tends to list institutions by place name only, which presents a different set of challenges.
In the following Delta Tau Delta chapter list, active chapters are indicated in bold and inactive chapters and institutions are in italics.