It was established in the province of Hainaut to publish unedited literary and historical documents.
[3] One of the founders was Camille Wins, who assumed the role of secretary from 1839 until 1856.
[3] By the 1840s, the Belgian printer Emmanuel Hoyois was publishing it in Mons.
Up until then, only three works had been published and distributed: Secret Correspondence of Margaret of Parma with Philip II; Letters on the Life Interior of Charles V; and The Memoirs of Charles III de Croÿ, fourth Duke of Arschot.
[8] As early as January 1878, the society was reported as a foreign correspondent of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.[9]