The National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy was the founding name of the AOTA.

Occupational therapy was launched as a new profession at the first meeting of the National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy at Consolation House, Clifton Springs, New York in March 1917.

The Society was founded by a small group of people from diverse backgrounds.

There was George Edward Barton (1871-1923) an architect, William Rush Dunton (1865-1966) a psychiatrist, Eleanor Clarke Slagle (1870-1942) a social worker and occupational therapist, Thomas B Kidner (1866-1932) a vocational educator, Susan Cox Johnson (1875-1932) an arts and crafts teacher, Susan E. Tracy (1864-1928) a nurse, Herbert James Hall (1870-1923) a physician and Isabel Gladwin Newton Barton (1891-1975) the secretary and author.

Their wide ranging interests, including moral treatment, pragmatism, habit training, mental hygiene movement, curative occupations and the arts and craft movement, laid the foundations for occupational therapy.