At the suggestion of Professors Emmons, Mather and Hitchcock, the first meeting of the Association of American Geologists met at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in April, 1840. The next meeting was also in Philadelphia but with headquarters at the Academy of Natural Sciences. At the third meeting in Boston, the name was changed to include other scientists and from then it was called the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. The fourth to the eighth meetings were held at Albany, New York, Washington, D. C., New Haven, New York and again at Boston respectively. At the last meeting in September, 1847 the Association was resolved into The American Association for the Advancement of Science with its first meeting scheduled for September the 20th the following year at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The papers in this collection consist of the Association's Constitution, Rules and Regulations, minutes of all its meetings, lists of members, ballots for officers, original texts or abstracts of scientific papers presented at the meetings, and letters in connection with Association business.

Since the details of the new Association meeting were in the hands of a local committee, chaired by Samuel G. Morton, and the new secretary was W. R. Johnson, both members of the Academy of Natural Sciences, it is assumed that the official papers of the old Association were passed on to the members of the local committee handling the details of the founding of the new organization. These papers were found in the Academy's archives in 1954.