Without a concerted effort to preserve important historical materials, relevant information about the ASA might be lost over time. To prevent this, the ASA has the Archives and Historical Materials Committee (AHMC) with the following charge:

• To identify, collect, preserve, and make accessible the permanent records of the American Statistical Association and its committees, sections, chapters, and representative bodies, as appropriate
• To serve as the American Statistical Association representatives to review and advise on contracts relating to historical and archival material

A history of the AHMC, originally written by Rich Allen, outlines the development of the committee. A precursor to the current committee was the Committee on Preservation of Documents of Distinguished Statisticians, established in 1967 by former ASA president Fred Mosteller with Churchill Eisenhart as chair. This committee merged in 1989 with the Committee on ASA Archives (which began in 1984), and Eisenhart continued to lead the combined committee.

One of the major accomplishments in the early years of the committee was overseeing the transfer of important ASA documents to the library at Iowa State University, which would serve as a repository for the archived materials. The Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) in Ames, Iowa, holds the records of the American Statistical Association, with its earliest documents dating from 1839. There are some 19th-century records, including a copy of the American Statistical Association’s original charter and constitution; some early correspondence; and an early record book from 1872–1916.

The collection is most complete, however, for more recent decades, particularly beginning in the 1980s. It includes correspondence, committee files, financial records, publications, conference proceedings, news clippings, and research proposals. The records were donated to Iowa State University Library in 1984. A finding aid for the collection is available online, which provides a folder-level inventory of the collection. The collection is open to the public and can be reviewed in person at Parks Library on the Iowa State University campus. Questions about accessing the collection can be directed to SCUA.

Another major archival project was organizing the ASA project for the filming of Distinguished Statisticians videotapes. The AHMC, led by Dipak Dey, converted the videotaped interviews to DVD format. In a related effort, the AHMC and its Iowa State partner led the effort to convert a series of Continental Classroom films (dating from the 1950s) of Fred Mosteller, Paul Clifford, and Robert Rourke from reel-to-reel format to DVD. A future goal of the AHMC is to convert the Distinguished Statistician DVDs to streaming video and have them available online.

In recent years, the AHMC has increased its presence at the Joint Statistical Meetings. During JSM 2014 in Boston, the AHMC had a special booth with a slide show, posters, games, and information about the 175th anniversary of the ASA. Since 2014, the committee has sponsored numerous JSM sessions on topics such as the history of the ASA and its presidents, the history of clinical trials, the role of the ASA, and the impact of statistics on government policy.

An important distinction that is sometimes overlooked is that the AHMC deals with the history of the ASA, not the history of statistics as a whole. To fill that gap, an ASA interest group focusing on the history of statistics was started in 2017 at the suggestion of John McKenzie.

Michael P. Cohen, Phyllis Curtiss, David Hitchcock, Alan Hutson, Wendy Martinez, John McKenzie, and Margaret Nemeth met at JSM 2017 in Baltimore and discussed the formation of the ASA History of Statistics Interest Group. The group wrote a draft charter and obtained 156 names for the petition to form an ASA interest group. The Council of Sections approved the charter and the History of Statistics Interest Group was formed in December 2017 with Wendy Martinez serving as the chair for 2017–2018.

The purpose of the History of Statistics Interest Group is to bring together individuals and groups who have an active interest in the history of statistics, to share information and research about the history of statistics, and to provide resources for educators and researchers.