Beginning with the minutes of the preliminary meeting of Jan. 25, 1812 this record runs consecutively thru 1925 when the minutes are discontinued as such and the business of the Academy recorded later as abstracts of the annual meetings. There are two series of the minutes, the first “rough draft” written up at the time of the meeting and presented at the next meeting for approval of the members. When approved they were entered in the official account and preserved there. The rough minutes date from 1826 to 1927 as twelve volumes, while the official minutes are listed v. 1, la, 2-16, 1812-1927. The volume “1-a” is a transcript written by Edward J. Nolan.

In the early days weekly meetings were held, and beginning with 1841 the minutes were published in the Proceedings of the Academy. As published they were given in much detail but with some deletions. Later sessions were held at forthnightly periods and eventually at monthly intervals. After 1927 the minutes are not filed in this collection of manuscripts.

There has been no index to the minutes prepared. In the early 1950's two microfilm copies of the official minutes were made by the American Philosophical Society, one of which is on file at its library and the second in the possession of the John Crerar library. The second copy came to the Academy as a gift from the American Philosophical Society but was sent to the Chicago library for preservation in case of atomic disaster.

The collection also contains 24 loose documents found laid in the “official” minutes and 23 taken from the “rough” minutes, assembled as Coll. 502A and 502B respectively.