The 1957 proto-ASH meeting included an eclectic mix of pediatric hematologists; clinical pathologists; radiologists; 50 internists (the largest group); basic scientists; and people from government agencies. Here's a humorous take on motivations for joining the new society:/18 
There was discussion about whether “American” should include Central & South America. Blood had included "Latin American" board members from its inception in 1946. To their credit, proto-ASH leaders decided that, like Blood, ASH would be open to hematologists from *anywhere*./19
Not everyone thought there was a need for a new professional society. There was a vocal Boston group, for instance, who felt it was “immoral” (!) to attend scientific conferences because attendees would miss a day of work in the lab or clinic. We've all had bosses like that.😉/20
In 1957, organizer James Tullis went to his next door neighbor in Newton, Massachusetts – a lawyer – and asked him to draw up articles of incorporation pro bono. This became ASH’s first Constitution, which has been modified / updated many times over the years./21
The actual first meeting of ASH was in Atlantic City, at the Chalfonte Hotel again, in April 1958. Reportedly, >350 people attended (no one officially counted). Some new science was presented, annual dues were set ($3), and central St Louis was chosen as the 1959 meeting site./22
Almost 600 people attended the 2nd ASH meeting at the Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis in November 1959; 120 papers were submitted & 40 selected for oral presentation in 2 afternoon sessions. Mornings were given over to discussion of antibody synthesis and leukemia etiology./23
For many years the ratio of papers selected for presentation to those submitted was about 1/3. Posters were not part of the annual meeting for >20 years. An Education Program was added in 1969, at the request of clinical hematologists. Here are some early ASH leaders./24
The 3rd meeting was in Montreal – almost 700 attendees. The last ASH annual meeting outside the US was Toronto in 1967; San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1970 was the last one outside the Continental US. Throughout the 1960s there were no ‘simultaneous sessions’ – only 1 meeting room!/25
For many years ASH annual meeting has been in early December. This tradition started in the 1960s because hematologists (& their spouses who often came along) wanted to do holiday shopping in larger cities. Also, not many other meetings are held right after US Thanksgiving./26
Reflecting that history, in 1970/1971 there was a separate annual meeting registration category for “Wives”. That was typical for the era. Keep in mind that 50+ yrs ago, most MDs & hematologists were male. In the years since, ASH has become a leader in diversity & inclusion.👍/27
Over the years the meeting has grown immensely; last year, the number registered was almost 30,000! Since Nashville in 1994, where some hotels were far from meeting halls, only cities with very large convention space & ample hotels have been chosen to hold the annual meeting./28
December weather sometimes presents a travel challenge for people coming to ASH from cold-weather cities. The last ASH meeting in the Northern US was Philadelphia in 2002. A snowstorm on the first day of the meeting prevented many attendees from getting there, including me.❄️/29
Until the late 1990s ASH abstracts were submitted on blue paper forms. Authors typed data & had to stay within a defined box– a precursor of today's word limit. Those abstracts not selected for oral/poster got published in a separate book, which we nicknamed “the nether book”./30
Now more than 6,000 abstracts are submitted each year; almost 1000 become oral presentations, more than 2000 are posters. About one-half of presented abstracts are eventually published as a manuscript./31 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
ASH director of meetings @reednow supervises a large team who put thousands upon thousands of hours into preparing for the meeting, hiring up to 300 consultants and planning for it years in advance. Every contingency is considered./32
@ASHClinicalNews ran a ‘behind the scenes’ about the meeting, featuring an interview with Bill Reed. Reading it, you can sense why switching to an all virtual meeting was such a big deal this year & will have so many downstream effects on staff, contractors, vendors etc./33
"The loading dock alone is a logistical masterpiece: 150 semi-trucks deliver 1.25 million pounds of freight, audio-visual equipment, furniture, and more, on a precisely orchestrated schedule."/34 ashclinicalnews.org/spotlight/behi…
So I want to emphasize that, as with other tweetstories, I am telling this history in an ‘unofficial’ capacity. I don’t speak for ASH and I’ve only been attending the annual meeting for 23 years. So please consider this just a ‘fireside chat’. /35
I draw heavily on primary sources such as a 1977 narrative prepared by Thomas Hale Ham (1905-1987) shortly after he retired from a long career @cwru & James Tullis (1914-1996), who worked in Boston & was the first ASH President in 1959, as well as a long interview Tullis gave./36
