The American Phytopathological Society (APS) was established in 1908. C. L. Shears of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called an initial meeting on December 15, 1908, to take the preliminary steps for organizing a general society of plant pathologists. A follow up meeting was held on December 30, 1908 in conjunction with a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Baltimore, Maryland. At this meeting, a council of five officers was elected to consider and make recommendations for establishing a permanent organization. The first formal meeting of the society was held in Boston, Massachusetts during the week of December 27, 1909-January 1, 1910.

Membership in the society is open to professional educators, researchers and others interested in the study and control of plant diseases. APS is based in St. Paul, Minnesota and holds one large meeting annually, but also consists of several regional divisions (Caribbean, North Central, Northeastern, Pacific, Potomac, and Southern), which also meet regularly.

This collection (1878-[ongoing]) contains records of annual meetings (includes audio and video tapes), biographical essays about prominent plant pathologists, committee activities, correspondence, membership lists, meeting minutes, awards and honors, discussion about changes to the group's constitution and bylaws, photographs, publications and reports. Although the American Phytopathological Society was officially formed in 1908, plant pathologists held meetings in conjunction with other scientists prior to the formation of the society and records of these meetings and other documents were contained in some of the APS members' collections.

The full finding aid is available here as a pdf file (3 MB in size).