While the American Meteorological Society Was Founded in 1919, There Was a Very Active Meteorological Community before the National Organization Came Together

While the American Meteorological Society was founded in 1919, there was a very active meteorological community before the national organization came together. This activity came from many different directions: Abbott Lawrence Rotch established the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in 1885 and also participated in the short-lived American Meteorological Journal, a seminal, monthly publication which (according to its title page) covered meteorology, medical climatology and geography. The U.S. government both organized (through various departments) the observation and forecasting of weather on a national scale, first through the Post Office and later the telegraph, and published the Monthly Weather Review, which chronicled weather phenomena throughout the continental United States. Small regional chapters of local weather observers, farmers, teachers and others came together as one national society with Charles Franklin Brooks, Director of Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, as its Secretary.