[1] Since 1905, the society sponsors an annual series of lectures given by biomedical researchers from institutions mainly in North America.
On 1 April 1905 a group of 13 prominent New York physicians and scientists met at 9 East 74th Street in the residence of physiologist Graham Lusk.
Their intention was to form a society which would forge a "closer relationship between the purely practical side of medicine and the results of laboratory investigation" by organizing a lecture series which would be open to physicians, scientists, and the general public.
[2] The society's first meeting took place on October 7, 1905 in the Academy of Medicine with a lecture on the theory of narcosis by Hans Horst Meyer, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Vienna.
The Royal College of Physicians of London holds an annual lecture established by William Harvey in 1656 called the Harveian Oration.