Main Archive

The archives of the LSA are housed at The State Historical Society of Missouri on the campus of University of Missouri-Columbia. The complete inventory [pdf] of documents (from 1896 - 1998) of the collection is available online. A listing of additional materials donated to the collection, but not yet indexed, may be downloaded as a PDF from the Missouri website. The collection is accessible to scholars via appointment and also by submitting a formal request for document retrieval. Copies of relevant materials can then be sent to the scholar at his/her local research site for a nominal fee.

Publications Archives

The archives of the handbooks from the LSA's Annual Meetings dating back to 1965 are available online. Any handbook may be downloaded as a PDF from the LSA's Past Annual Meetings webpage.

The archives of the LSA's flagship journal, Language, may be found online at JSTOR. Bound volumes are also maintained at many university libraries, as well as by the LSA Secretariat. A small quantity of selected back-issues are available for sale from the LSA Secretariat. Selected monographs published by the LSA are also available via JSTOR e-books. Look for a complete listing soon.

The archives of the LSA's platinum open-access journal, Semantics and Pragmatics, are available online.

The archives of eLanguage, the LSA's digitial publishing platform (2008-2013), are available online. 

The LSA publishes and hosts archives of Proceedings from the Berkeley Linguistics Society (BLS), the Annual Meetings of Phonology, the Annual Meetings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), and the Extended Abstracts of the LSA Annual Meetings. 

The complete run of the LSA Bulletin is now available via JSTOR. From 1926 to 1969, the Bulletin was published in conjunction with Language, the scholarly journal of the LSA. From 1970 - 2005, it was published as a free-standing newsletter. In 2000, it became available in both print and electronic versions. In 2006, it ceased print publication and was disseminated electronically. The electronic issues are available on the LSA website.

Archives of the LSA Update, a periodic e-mail newsletter are available online.

Archives of the LSA Annual Meeting Handbook are available online (in PDF) from 1965 - present. These handbooks include selected formal annual reports of the Secretary-Treasurer, the Editors of LSAS journals, the Program Committee and the Executive Director. Bound volumes of older handbooks are held at the LSA Secretariat. Individual copies may be available for sale through the LSA Secretariat and for reading in selected University reference libraries. 

Selected Materials

In recent years, the LSA has digitally scanned a variety of documents that were subsequently donated the Missouri archive. Please see the Online Archive of Selected Historical Materials for original documents, including correspondence from the earliest editors of Language.

Each year, the President of the LSA has the honor of delivering the Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting. Click here to view the titles and abstracts of the addresses, as well as links to the addresses as published articles in Language. 

Notes on the Development of the LSA, 1924-1950, an unpublished 167 page manuscript prepared by Martin Joos in the 1970s, is available as a scanned PDF. It was prepared in conjunction with the LSA's 50th anniversary. Thanks to Mark Liberman and Language Log for making it available.

Minutes of Executive Committee meetings from 1979 - present; and listings of LSA Executive Committee members from 1925 - present. 

Minutes of LSA Business Meetings, Reports of the Secretary-Treasurer and Financial Statements of the LSA are also available online.

"This time in LSA/linguistics history" is a new feature of periodic essays appearing on the LSA website.

Listings of LSA Fellows, Honorary Members, past Presidents and Secretary-Treasurers are also available online.

Audio-Visual Materials

The LSA Video Archive was a temporary project of the Society that contained short informational videos about language geared towards the general public. Content from the achive is now housed on the LSA's YouTube channel, which also includes recordings of some LSA events.

LSA Archivist

The LSA established the volunteer position of Archivist at the time the collection at Missouri was established. The Archivist advises the Society about appropriate mechanisms for preserving the records of the LSA. Questions about the LSA Archives may be directed to the LSA Secretariat, or to the current Archivist, Margaret Thomas (picutred at right).