Founded in 1884, it is the oldest Catholic historical society in the United States.
[1] The society was organized on July 22, 1884, received the blessing of the pope on January 10, 1886, and formally approved by the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Patrick John Ryan, on September 6, 1886.
[3] The journal was founded in 1887 as the Records, and merged with American Catholic Historical Researches in 1913.
Andrew Arnold Lambing and his short-lived Ohio Valley Historical Society.
[5] Since 1999, the journal, under its current name, has been published on a quarterly basis by Villanova University.