American Society for Cell Biology records

Overview

Administrative/Biographical Note

The American Society for Cell Biology was organized in 1960 when a group of cell biologists, headed by Keith R. Porter, met on January 9th and on May 28th to explore the desirability of founding a new society and beginning the organization process. This move had been suggested by two organized groups, the Tissue Culture Association and the Cell Biology Study Section of the Public Health Service, and by a number of individual cell biologists. On March 13, 1961 a provisional Executive Committee was appointed with Keith Porter as Chairman; the new American Society for Cell Biology was incorporated in the State of New York on July 31, 1961. The first meeting of the Society was held November 2-4, 1961 at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Illinois and Don W. Fawcett was elected the first president. In the early years, The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) was guided and operated by volunteers who served as officers, as members of Council, or on various committees. The executive committee was made up of four officers: President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and thirteen Council members. Unlike the President and President-Elect who served for one year only, the Secretary and the Treasurer served for several years running. From 1961-1978 only three members were elected Secretary: Montrose J. Moses (1961-1967), George D. Pappas (1967-1973), and Nancy L. R. Bucher (1973-1978). The Secretary’s office was the hub of the organization, sustaining its continuity by guarding its archives, maintaining membership and dues billing records, and, more importantly, coordinating the Society’s activities. The Society expanded rapidly both in membership and in the number of committees that carried out the Society’s activities. In July 1962, President Dan Fawcett appointed a Publications Committee to look into the advantages and disadvantages of founding a new journal or sponsoring an existing one. At the Annual Meeting on November 4, 1962, the Council unanimously voted to recommend cosponsorship of the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) in conjunction with the Rockefeller Institute. A proposal to the editors of JCB and the president of Rockefeller Institute was approved, and by April 1963 the membership had approved the proposal by an overwhelming vote. The members of ASCB had a particular interest in the issue of education in the biological sciences, and by 1966 the Educational Policy Committee was a standing committee. This committee was to perform a significant part of the work of the Society, sponsoring workshops and providing funding for students and teachers by way of grants from organizations such as the National Science foundation and others. In addition, a small group of members, realizing the importance of contacting legislators and other government officials about funding, especially NIH funding for the discipline of Cell Biology, began to monitor legislation. By 1971, recognizing that the relationships between government and the universities and the scientific community were changing, this unofficial group became a new committee, the Public Policy Committee. Its task would be not to monitor only legislation and the development of public policy regarding the biological sciences, but also to take an active role in helping to shape that policy. ASCB hosted the First International Congress for Cell Biology in conjunction with its Seventeenth Annual Meeting at Boston, in 1976. It was an such an enormous undertaking for the young society that it was clear that the Society would have to change its management style if future challenges were to be met. In the fall of 1977, Nancy Bucher, Secretary of the Society at the time of the Congress, sent a letter to President-Elect Keith Porter suggesting the establishment of a permanent business office. She felt that the Society’s established mode of operating was no longer practical due to the greatly increased size of the membership, the consequent requirements for office space, and the demands on the Secretary’s time. She recommended that while the Secretary would continue to make decisions regarding policy, routine business should be handled by an executive officer in a central office. This central office would also assist the Treasurer and perform much of the routine work that burdened the Program Chairperson and eventually take over the Placement Service. At the Annual Meeting in San Diego, the Council agreed that a national office should be established. At the same time that Nancy Bucher and Keith Porter asked Emma Shelton to run for the office of Secretary and to take over the duties of establishing and managing a permanent office. A lease for office space in Bethesda, Maryland was signed on October 1, 1978 and Marion Cyr was hired as the new administrative assistant. The first order of business was to transfer to the Bethesda office the files of the Secretary as well as the voluminous files that had accumulated and been passed from one Treasurer to another since the Society’s creation. Shortly thereafter, the Constitution and By-Laws Committee met at the new office to prepare revisions to the constitution that would permit the establishment of the National Office and the hiring of an Executive Officer. On May 1, 1979, a contract was signed making Emma Shelton the first Executive Officer for the new National Office. With the opening of the National Office, other changes took place that while less dramatic were nonetheless significant in indicating that the young society had come of age. In an effort to make the Society more responsive to the needs of the membership and to make the new office a kind of clearinghouse for information, the new Executive Officer began the publication of a regular Newsletter. The first ASCB Newsletter appeared in March 1979, and continues to the present. In addition, Keith Porter instituted several changes. First, he asked the National Office to purchase a gavel to be used as a symbol of the Office of President, and, then, at the Annual Meeting in Toronto in 1979, instituted a formal procedure for passing responsibility from one president to the next. He also felt the Society needed a logo to represent itself and in the fall of 1979 showed some pictures of cells to Mark Swisher who subsequently drew the design that was later accepted as the Society’s logo. In 1980 the E.B. Wilson Award was established through the work of Keith Porter who arranged for the design of the medal. The E.B. Wilson Medal has been awarded each year to an outstanding cell biologist for scientific achievement ever since. This was not the only award to be established in the years following the opening of the central office. In 1982 Lewis G. Tilney became the first awardee of the new Keith Porter Endowment Fund. This fund, named in honor of Keith R. Porter, supports the lecture given every year by an eminent cell biologist at the Annual Meeting. ASCB had long been concerned with the issue of inclusiveness and the role and presence of minorities and women in the Society, and by the early 1980’s, an ad hoc minorities group was formed. This group held a breakfast and discussion meeting each year during Annual Meeting. Society presidents supported these efforts with small discretionary grants to support minority travel. Shortly thereafter, a NIH/Minorities Access to Research Careers (MARC) grant was received that would support the funding of minority travel and participation in the Society’s Annual Meeting. This grant was administered through the Society office and was to have a duration of ten years but has been renewed by the NIH/MARC program under the present administration. These efforts led to the establishment of the original minority group and thereafter to the Minorities Affairs Committee. The first chairman of the Minorities Affairs Committee, Dr. George M. Langford, was elected in 1985. Similarly the Minorities Affaires Committee, the Women in Cell Biology Committee began as an informal group and operated for a number of years as an ad hoc committee, publishing its own newsletter beginning in 1974. It ultimately achieved full committee status in 1993. In 1986 the Executive Committee began a discussion about the possibility of sponsoring a second journal whose focus would be cell regulation. It was felt that this was a growing area and that a journal dedicated to cell regulation would be of benefit. At the Council Meeting on April 17, 1987 a motion was passed to authorize a committee to take steps to investigate the financial and scientific aspects of starting the new journal and to approve a tentative editorial board. In November 1987 the Council approved, in principle, the publication of the new journal. By the end of 1988 an Editor- in – Chief had been hired and the first issue of Cell Regulation appeared in November of 1989. On December 20, 1982 Richard Young, Executive Officer of the Society, initiated a move to collect and organize the records of the Society. The Society was now twenty years old and he had found that there was a very poor record of the Society’s history. He hoped to remedy the situation by retrieving any records still in the hands of former officers. This was the beginning of a long process toward the creation of an archive. The first formal steps were taken at the 1986 business meeting when the membership passed a motion to create an archive for the Society. At the Council meeting in the spring of 1987, Robert Trelstad was appointed to chair a committee to carry out this task. At the Council Meeting in November 1992 an Archive Project Proposal was put forward. The intent was to create a formal archive, and since it was noted that the amount of work necessary to develop and maintain it might be too much for the National Office and Council, it was agreed that a depository organization should be sought. At the December 1994 Council Meeting the council approved the donation of the ASCB archives to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where it now resides.

Scope & Content

This collection of records of the ASCB documents the origins of the Society, its significant growth in membership and standing committees, the opening of its National Office and its work in promoting both education and research in the field of cell biology. These records have been arranged into five primary series that reflect the committee organization set forth in the ASCB management packet. Each of the series: National Office, Meetings, Publications, Public Affairs, and Committees contain the documents of committees and individuals responsible for the workings of a particular area of ASCB activity. The first series, National Office, contains the records of the Executive Committee, Council, and Finance Committee pertaining to the bureaucratic and fiscal management of the Society including membership dues, subscriptions, and the placement service. It contains correspondence, minutes, agendas, reports, rosters, bylaws and constitutions, resumes, accounts and ledgers, invoices and receipts, and other administrative files. There are correspondence files of the President, Secretary, Treasurer and Executive Officer as well as the Committees Coordinator from as early as 1959 and continuing up to early 1995. The correspondence covers nearly all aspects of the Society’s activities, from NIH grant proposals and the proposed merger between ASCB and the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) to the arrangements for the business office and the hiring of the Executive Officer. Of particular interest are letters outlining the activities that led to the founding of ASCB. Some of these documents are among the correspondence of the Executive Officer, Richard Young, which were collected when he began the movement to create an archive for the Society. The others are found in the correspondence files of the President. There is a nearly complete run of minutes for both annual and interim council meetings as well as Executive Committee meetings and a partial run of minutes for the business meetings. While less extensive than those for later years, the minutes of the early years present a clear picture of the birth and growth of the new society. Documents relating to the nomination and election of officers and the creation and emendation of the constitution and bylaws are numerous. They include correspondence, notes, nomination forms, resumes, rosters, and ballots. Of particular interest is the mass of correspondence surrounding a change made to the bylaws in 1978 in response to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The decision not to hold meetings in states that did not ratify the ERA provoked a flurry of letter writing both for and against the decision. This series also contains a substantial amount of material relating to the management of the organization and the running of the National office. Reports from both the offices of the Secretary and Treasurer are present as well as those of the Finance Committee that provide information about the responsibilities and functions of these officers and the workings of this Committee in managing the growing society. The Secretary’s reports contain mailings to the general membership concerning a variety of Society activities including information on the nomination and election of officers and the council, announcements, surveys and questionnaires. Reports from the Treasurer’s office contain the budgets, financial statements and annual reports done by independent auditors that outline the workings and fiscal standing of the Society while reports of the Finance Committee provide a look into the decision making process. Accounting files, invoices and receipts, bank records, ledgers, time sheets and tax forms document the day to day operations involved in running the national office and managing the financial aspects of society activities particularly those of meetings and membership. Membership records comprise a significant proportion of the documents in this series; since the tracking of membership applications, dues and subscriptions is one of the primary functions of the National Office. Membership files include member application forms beginning with the very first year of operation. These include correspondence, letters of recommendation, resumes, transcripts, and article offprints. In addition, there are questionnaires and surveys sent to members, correspondence, invoices and receipts relating to dues and subscriptions and printed member directories. A significant number of records in this series are administrative files pertaining to variety of society activities and initiatives, directed by the National Office, executive officers and council. Correspondence, surveys, reports and memos tracking the initiative to merge the SDB and ASCB are present, as are the files of the Committee to Consider Joining FASEB. Additionally there are the documents recording the selection and deliberations of the Awards Committee and the records that detail the work of the Placement Service. The second series, Meetings, contains the records of the Annual Meeting, regional meetings, conferences of the ASCB plus records from gatherings cosponsored with other professional societies. These files contain the documents of the Program Committee, the Local Arrangements Committee, the Conference Committee and the Exhibits Advisory Committee. Correspondence, memos, budgets, schedules, floor plans, contracts, program drafts, brochures and other documents outline the planning and preparation involved in running a major scientific meeting. Canceling a scientific meeting can be equally difficult, as is exhibited in the files for the 1986 Annual Meeting. The meeting was to have been in Denver, but was cancelled and rescheduled for Washington D.C. The voluminous records created by the negotiations and litigation that followed the cancellation of the meeting are noteworthy. Also included are the final printed programs for the Annual Meeting each year as well as some for regional meetings and conferences. In some instances there are abstract packets and announcements for these meetings. The documents in the series Publications relate to the production and tracking of Society publications and include the files of the Publications Committee and the Editorial Policy Committee. While not extensive, the minutes, agendas, reports, correspondence, invoices and brochures do provide information on the work involved in the production of the Society’s publications. These are the Journal of Cell Regulation and A Guide to Opportunities in Cell Biology that the society publishes and the Journal of Cell Biology that is produced in conjunction with Rockefeller University Press. Like Publications, the series Public Policy has a limited number of records but those that are available are significant because they provide a look into an important aspect of ASCB activities. Files include those of the Legislative Oversight Committee, the Public Affairs Committee, the Public Information Committee, and the Public Policy Committee. Included with the minutes, agendas, correspondence, memos and reports are copies of House of Representative Bills being tracked by the Society. The final series, Committees, includes the files of the Education Committee, the Minorities Affairs Committee and the Women in Cell Biology Committee. The records of Education Committee contain the agendas, minutes, reports, and correspondence of the Education Committee as well as large number of documents related specifically to the preparation and organization of conferences and workshops sponsored by the committee. These files include program drafts, schedules, brochures, and abstracts along with documents pertaining to the travel grants given by the committee for student travel to ASCB meetings, conferences and workshops. As with the Education Committee, the Minorities Affairs Committee files contain records related to ‘sponsored’ programs and travel grants awarded. In addition, there are grant proposals and other documents pertaining to the NIH-MARC grant that provided funding for minority travel and for awards for summer study at the Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole. The files of the committee, Women in Cell Biology, contains the minutes, correspondence memos, and reports of the committee along with awards files, a questionnaire and a newsletter, published 1974 – 1981 before the group had committee standing.

Organized into five series: Series I. National Office, 1959-1995. Series II. Meetings, 1960-1994. Series III. Publications, 1961-1995. Series IV. Public Affairs, 1970-1994. Series V. Committees, 1974-1994. Series I. National Office Correspondence Reports Agendas Minutes Articles of Incorporation Bylaws & Constitution Accounts Bank Records Invoices and Receipts Lease Rosters Administrative Procedures Tax Forms Ledgers Awards American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Proposed Merger Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Placement Service Nominations and Elections Membership Photos Videotape Series II. Meetings Annual Meetings Regional Meetings Summer Research Conference ASCB/EMBO Meetings ASCB/American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB) International Congress of Cell Biology (ICCB) ASCB/American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Programs Announcements Series III. Publications Book Order Editorial Policy Committee Invoices Publications Committee A guide to Opportunities in Cell Biology Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) Journal of Cell Regulation (JCR) Rockefeller University Press (RUP) News Releases Printed Matter Series IV. Public Affairs Legislative Oversight Committee Public Affairs Committee Public Information Committee Public Policy Committee Series V. Committees Education Committee Minorities Affairs Committee Women in Cell Biology

Provenance Information

SARCV 1995-01, SARCV 1998-08, SARCV 1998-09, SARCV 1999-03, SARCV 2000-01, SARCV 2000-02, SARCV 2000-10, SARCV 2000-14, SARCV 2001-02, SARCV 2002-01, SARCV 2003-05, SARCV 2007-02, SARCV 2008-03, SARCV 2012-02; the first accession was donated by the American Society for Cell Biology on March 30, 1995, with subsequent accessions donated in 1998 to 2012.

Currently, only the SARCV 1995-01 accession has been processed. This collection was processed under the supervision of Marcia Frank Peri and completed in April 2000. The accession of the records of ASCB arrived in 85 boxes and 3 steamer trunks. While the records from later years were in reasonably good order, those for the period prior to the establishment of the National Office were extremely disordered. This was not surprising, because records from the early years were passed from officer to officer and from place to place. It was therefore determined that the organization of these records would follow from the order discernable in the later materials and along the lines of the committees structure set out in the ASCB management packet. This arrangement left the bulk of the disordered materials in one series, National Office. These documents were then arranged by activity. Thus, correspondence for all officers were kept together, as were reports, minutes, accounts, awards, nominations and so forth. When necessary this subseries was further subdivided by subject or date. For example, in the case of the correspondence it was necessary to further organize the documents by officer. Multiple copies have been disposed whenever there were more than two copies of a given document as have old checks and checkbooks. Related Materials: Records of the Society for Developmental Biology, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Association of Immunologists, the American Type Culture Collection, and the International Union of Immunological Societies, American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Access & Use

No restrictions.

Reproductions allowed for research purposes. Copyright maintained by the creator.

Subject Headings

• Porter Keith R.
• American Society for Cell Biology Archives
• Society for Developmental Biology
• Cellular control mechanisms
• Cytology Societies, etc.
• Women scientists United States

Series Description & Container List

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Series I. National Office

Subseries I.A. Correspondence

Subseries I.B. Reports

Subseries I.C. Agendas

Subseries I.D. Minutes

Subseries I.E. Articles of Incorporation

Subseries I.F. Bylaws & Constitution

Subseries I.G. Accounts

Subseries I.H. Bank Records

Subseries I.I. Invoices and Receipts

Subseries I.J. Lease

Subseries I.K. Rosters

Subseries I.L. Administrative Procedures

Subseries I.M.Tax Forms

Subseries I.N. Time Sheets

Subseries I.O. Ledgers

Subseries I.P. Awards

Subseries I.Q. American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) /Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Proposed Merger

Subseries I.R. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)

Subseries I.S. Placement Service

Subseries I.T. Nominations and Elections

Subseries I.U. Membership

Subseries I.V. Photographs

Subseries I.W. Videotapes