The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship.

It is closely associated with Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, which is the site of its library. The society publishes a journal quarterly, The Journal of the American Oriental Society

The Journal of the American Oriental Society

The Journal of the American Oriental Society is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843.....

, the most important American serial publication in the historical languages of Asia. Former presidents include Theodore Dwight Woolsey

Theodore Dwight Woolsey

Theodore Dwight Woolsey was an American academic, author and president of Yale College from 1846 through 1871.-Biography:Theodore Dwight Woolsey was born October 31, 1801 in New York City...

, James Hadley

James Hadley

James Hadley was an American scholar who was born in Fairfield, New York, where his father was professor of chemistry at Fairfield Medical College. At the age of nine an accident left him lame for life...

, W. D. Whitney

William Dwight Whitney

William Dwight Whitney was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer who edited The Century Dictionary.-Life:William Dwight Whitney was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on February 9, 1827. His father was Josiah Dwight Whitney of the New England Dwight family...

, Daniel C. Gilman

Daniel Coit Gilman

Daniel Coit Gilman was an American educator and academician, who was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and who subsequently served as one of the earliest presidents of the University of California, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, and as...

, William H. Ward

William Hayes Ward

William Hayes Ward was an American clergyman, editor, and Orientalist, born at Abington, Mass.He graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1852, Amherst College in 1856, and the Andover Theological Seminary in 1859. He served as pastor of a church at Oskaloosa, Kans. in 1859-60, and as...

, Crawford H. Toy

Crawford Howell Toy

Crawford Howell Toy , American Hebrew scholar, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on 23 March 1836. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied at the University of Berlin from 1866 to 1868...

, and M. Jastrow, Jr.

Morris Jastrow, Jr.

Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph. D. was an American orientalist, the son of Marcus Jastrow.-Biography:He was born in Warsaw, came to Philadelphia in 1866 when his father, Marcus Jastrow, accepted a position as Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom. He graduated at Penn in 1881...

.