International Union of Immunological Societies records -
Scope and Content Note
This collection of records of the International Union of Immunological Societies 1966 – 2011 documents the origins of the Union, its growth in membership and committees and the developments in the International Congress of Immunology. These records have been organized into five series: Officers and Council, Membership, Meetings, Committees, and Affiliated Organizations.
The first series, Officers and Council, contains the correspondence and reports of the president, vice-president, secretary-general and treasurer, the minutes, agendas, reports, and correspondence of the meetings of council, the organization’s financial records and some miscellaneous administrative files and photos. There is a complete run of correspondence for the President from 1971, the date of the beginning of the Union through 1998 and a nearly complete run of Treasurer’s correspondence. The correspondence files for the Vice-President and Secretary-General are considerable more sporadic. Of particular interest are some of the early correspondences dating as early as 1966 detailing the discussions leading up to the founding of IUIS, decisions pertaining to the choice of name, issues relating to the proposed constitution and the organization of the first IUIS Committees, Standardization and Nomenclature.
This series also contains the minutes of all the council meetings beginning with the 1970 meeting and continuing up to 2011. Agendas, reports, correspondence and other materials connected with these meetings are, however, only available from 1979 - 1997. A large selection of the meeting minutes are available through UMBC's Digital Collections.
There are a small number of President’s reports and very few reports of the Secretary-General but there is a reasonably good run of Treasurer’s reports. There is one copy of the 1st International Congress budget for 1971 and another financial report for 1973 after which there is a fairly good run of treasurer’s reports for the years 1980 – 1995.
The accounting records available in this collection are practically non-existent for the first ten years of the organization. There is a pair of handwritten ledgers for the year 1972 and then nothing until 1982. Records from 1982 forward include banking and investment information, files pertaining to income and expenditures including invoices, receipts, budgets, and audits, and files concerning the expenses of specific committees.
The second series, Membership, comprises the bulk of the records that relate to dues, subscription, member societies and regional federations. There are an extensive number of invoices, receipts, and correspondences pertaining to member payments, as well as correspondence files that provide information about the relationship of IUIS with immunological societies and regional federations throughout the world. These together with printed membership directories show the growth of the Union over time.
Series three, Meetings, primarily holds documents relating to the International Congresses on Immunology but also include some records for the IUIS Conference on Clinical Immunology, and the International Immunopathological Symposium. The files include the minutes of the General Assembly, as well as agendas, reports and budgets, programs and correspondence. There are also a significant number of files relating to the planning and arrangements for the congresses. These include schedules, contracts, proposals, brochures, budgets, correspondence, memos, and management agreements.
The files in the fourth series, Committees, are the records of the actions of eight IUIS committees. Some of the committees have retained very few documents while others such as the Clinical Immunology Committee, the Nomenclature Committee, the Standardization Committee and the Symposia Committee have records spanning most of the time they have been functioning. Of the IUIS committees the Veterinary Immunology Committee has maintained most extensive record of their work. Committee files include some or all of the following: correspondence, memos, minutes, agendas, proposals, budgets, reports, articles, programs, and a questionnaire. Of some interest are the correspondences and reports of the Clinical Immunology Committee that predate its organization. They provide a view into the concerns that lead up to its formation.
The last series is Affiliate Organizations. These records pertain to organizations that have some type of formal working relationship with IUIS. For most of the represented organizations there is very little material present but the records do include some correspondence, memos, reports, and a charter. On the other hand, there is quite a substantial amount of documents for the International Council of Scientific Union (ICSU). These files contain correspondence, audited accounts, dues and exchange rate information, grants, reports, and newsletters.
