The story
A detailed history of the first fifty years of the MAA appears in May (1972). A report on activities prior to World War II appears in Bennett (1967). Further details of its history can be found in Case (1996). In addition numerous regional sections of the MAA have published accounts of their local history.
The MAA was established in 1915. But the roots of the Association can be traced to the 1894 founding of the American Mathematical Monthly by Benjamin Finkel, who wrote "Most of our existing journals deal almost exclusively with subjects beyond the reach of the average student or teacher of mathematics or at least with subjects with which they are familiar, and little, if any, space, is devoted to the solution of problems…No pains will be spared on the part of the Editors to make this the most interesting and most popular journal published in America."
The MAA records are preserved as part of the Archives of American Mathematics.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mathematical Association of America, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3