AACR Timeline—The Founding Years: 1907-1915

1907

• On May 7, 1907, eleven prominent scientists meet at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., to found the American Association for Cancer Research.
• James Ewing, MD (right), is selected as the first of many outstanding AACR Presidents.
• The group of 23 Charter Members and 10 Charter Associate Members includes some of the most famous physicians of the era.
• November 15, 1907, the first scientific meeting is held at the Loomis Laboratory, Cornell University School of Medicine, New York, New York.

1908

• The second “regular” meeting is held on April 15, 1908, at the New York State Cancer Laboratory (Roswell Park), Buffalo, New York. This was the first biannual meeting, later designated as the First Annual Meeting.
• Martha Tracy, MD, DrPH (right), from Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia (later dean of that college), becomes the AACR’s first woman member.

1909

AACR President Harvey Gaylord, MD writes a letter to President William Howard Taft urging government funding for cancer research.

1912

• On April 3, the first Constitution and Bylaws are approved (they had been in effect informally since 1907). The bylaws would be revised several times. [Current Constitution and Bylaws]

1913

• AACR member Thomas S. Cullen, MD, presents “Education of the People as to What Can Be Done in Early Cases of Cancer” at the Annual Meeting, an appeal for public education that led to the seminal May 1913 Ladies Home Journal article, one of the first efforts at public education about cancer.

1915

• Annual Meeting proceedings are first approved for AACR publication.
• Member dues are increased from $3.00 to $5.00 to cover the publication of a new AACR journal.