American Statistical Association

The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on 27 November 1839 as the American Statistical Society, when William Cogswell, Richard Fletcher, John Dix Fisher, Oliver Peabody and Lemuel Shattuck met to form what is now the second oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States, after the Massachusetts Medical Society. It took its present name at its first annual meeting on 5 February 1840. Headquartered today in Alexandria, Virginia, the association states its purpose as promoting the practice and profession of statistics, publishes the Journal of the American Statistical Association among other journals, and holds an annual Joint Statistical Meetings with sister societies. Florence Nightingale, whose statistical work on hospital mortality during the Crimean War had already made her the first woman elected to the Royal Statistical Society, was recognized by the association for that same work.