Historical Note: American Association of Immunologists

The collection of records of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) primarily documents its activity between 1967 and 1992. While there are records back as far as 1941 they are very sporadic and consist mostly of correspondence. There are no documents concerning the Association’s founding and years up to the late 1940s, although there are articles included that relate the Associations history. The records are arranged in eight series: Council, Meetings, Committees, Financial, Historian, Publications, Affiliated Societies and Video and Audio Tapes.

The Council Series contains the records of Association Officers, Councillors, and the Executive Director. The Officer and Councillor files consist almost entirely of correspondence from the 1950s and 1960s though reports and meeting minutes are sometimes interspersed with the correspondence. The Executive Director files are those of Dr. Joe Saunders who was the first Executive Director of the Association and was appointed in 1986. His files include some materials of the Administrative Assistant dating from 1967 to 1971. The series Meetings contains files from the Annual/Business meetings, Council meetings, Executive Committee meetings and International Congress of Immunology meetings. The Annual/Business meeting subseries contains files for meetings from 1954 to 1992 with the exception of 1955. The Council meeting files begin in 1946 and are sporadic until 1965; from that point there is some material from each year until 1992. The index for Executive Committee reports and the accompanying reports were gleaned from meeting minutes and compiled in an easy to look up format. The system was devised by Executive Director Dr. Joe Saunders and is a good source to see what the various committees were involved in from 1973 to 1985. International Congress of Immunology files consist of correspondence pertaining to travel grants and arrangements with little information directly related to the meetings themselves.

Committee files are arranged in alpha order. The Education Committee files are the most numerous. There is more information on committees in the Meeting Series.

Financial records are extremely limited and in no way complete. There are two Association ledgers that cover the years from 1946 to 1970. The Membership Dues Ledger records membership records dating from 1921 provides a comprehensive member list. Also included are a small number of bank deposit and investment records, statements and a budget.

The Historian Series contains the files of the Associations first historian Merrill Chase. He was appointed in 1965 and began compiling histories and photographs of all AAI Presidents. Executive Director Dr. Joe Saunders added to Dr. Chase’s work. The files are in alpha order and include information and photographs of people other than AAI Presidents.

The Publication Series contains AAI publications such as newsletters from 1971 to 1991, meeting programs from from1960 to 1987. Although the Association published the Journal of Immunology since 1916, there are only volumes included from 1988 and 1989. The bulk of the material was not published by AAI but was included in the accession. It includes scientific articles, brochures, meeting programs and books. They are listed in alpha order.

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), the International Congress of Immunology, the International Union of Immunological Societies and the New York Academy of Science Conference are included in the Affiliated Societies Series. The majority of the files are from AAI’s close relationship with FASEB and date from 1961 to 1990. There are FASEB yearly membership directories from 1965 to 1979. The files are in alpha order followed by date order.

Audio cassette tapes are available for some Annual and Council meeting from 1986 to 1991. The video cassettes contain interviews and lectures.