These records are described in three parts representing four separate accessions. The groups overlap and the same subjects may be covered in all three parts. There are also significant gaps, such as very little correspondence prior to 1915, and large gaps in the records of the treasurer. Most of the surviving documentation on the AAS's founding is in Parts 1 and 2. Membership applications, correspondence, and lists found throughout give details on the growth of the organization. A complete set of minutes (1897-1962) can be found in Part 1, and there is a wealth of information on meetings of the AAS throughout including programs and preliminary announcements, abstracts of papers, meeting attendance signature books, and executive committee minutes. Parts 2 and 3 contain significant records on the founding of the American Section of the International Astronomical Union in 1919 and provide insights into the international relations of the scientific community after World War I. Also included are published versions of constitutions, by-laws, and membership lists, budgets, committee minutes, treasurer's reports, and photographs of groups taken at meetings. Some of the topics include education and employment of astronomers, the organization of scientific personnel in support of the war effort in the 1940s, the participation of women astronomers, UFOs, and George E. Hale on the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Correspondents include: Charles G. Abbot, Benjamin Boss, Margaret Burbidge, William W. Campbell, Annie J. Cannon, James McKeen Cattell, Goerge C. Comstock, Ralph H. Curtiss, Charles L. Doolittle, Dugan, R. S., Frank Edmondson, Philip Fox, Fredrick, Laurence, Edwin B. Frost, George E. Hale, William J. Hussey, J. Allen Hynek, Harold Jacoby, Albert A. Michelson, John A. Miller, Simon Newcomb, D. B. McLaughlin, George McVittie, Edward C. Pickering, Henry Norris Russell, Frank Schlesinger, Frederick H. Seares, Joel Stebbins, and Herbert C. Wilson.