The Philadelphia Section was formed in 1926 as the 17th section (out of 29)  of the MAA. Earlier that year Lehigh mathematician J. B. Reynolds proposed that a section be formed in the Lehigh Valley, but there was insufficient interest in the area. So he joined forces with his colleague A. A. Bennett and Penn mathematician H. H. Mitchell to organize a session of mathematical talks at Lehigh on Saturday, November 27, 1926.
     The morning portion of that meeting consisted of five invited lectures. The first was by J. B. Reynolds on evolutes of plane curves and the second by H. H. Mitchell on quadratic forms. The next two talks were delivered by W. M. Smith (of Lafayette) and the calculus author L. L. Smail (of Lehigh); both would serve as chairs of the section in the 1930s. The final speaker on the program was J. A. Foberg, State Director of Science and Mathematics for Pennsylvania.
     The program of lectures was followed by lunch, at which time Bennett, Mitchell, and Reynolds officially proposed the formation of an MAA section. At the business meeting conducted after lunch, the 20 persons in attendance agreed unanimously to request permission from the MAA Trustees to form a new section. Bennett, Mitchell, and Reynolds thus became the founders of the section, and the 14 MAA members in attendance became its charter members. Mitchell was chosen as chairman and Bennett as secretary-treasurer.
     A petition to form the Philadelphia Section was forwarded to the national MAA office. The Association acted with dispatch, in spite of some initial hesitation to name a section after a city instead of a state. Minutes from the Board meeting held just one month later record, “The Trustees voted to approve the organization of a PHILADELPHIA SECTION of the Association, subject to the submission of suitable by-laws, a petition to that effect having been sent by a meeting of thirteen members of the Association. This section is intended to serve more than one hundred members living in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, in southern New Jersey, and in Delaware, meetings usually being held in Philadelphia.”
     The 1926 annual MAA-AMS meeting was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, and an examination of attendance records indicates the existence of a critical mass of mathematicians in the Philadelphia area to establish and energize the section’s early meetings. The Philadelphia Section held its own annual meetings at Penn for the next four years, at Lehigh in 1931, and at Swarthmore in 1932. Attendance at the 1928 Penn meeting was 75, but the ensuing stock crash constrained participation until the 1932 Swarthmore meeting, when 74 attended. Two leaders from Penn emerged during this period – J. R. Kline and P. A. Caris. Kline, who had been R. L. Moore’s first Ph.D. student, served a term as chair and a term as secretary. He was also a frequent member of the Program Committee, which was first constituted in 1928. Caris succeeded Kline as secretary in 1928 and held the post until 1941; he was chair 1945-1946. Arnold Dresden (Swarthmore) was a central figure. Other leaders during the section’s initial stage included Tomlinson Fort (Lehigh), Dean A. E. Meder (Rutgers), and the astronomer J. A. Wilson (Swarthmore)
     Only two of the invited speakers during the period 1926-1932 came from outside the immediate area – the founder A. A. Bennett, who had moved to Brown, and J. F. Ritt of Columbia. Two leading Princeton mathematicians also delivered invited lectures, with topologist J. W. Alexander speaking on knot theory and differential geometer Luther Eisenhart (a graduate of Gettysburg) on dynamical trajectories.
     A minor turf conflict erupted in 1933 with the formation of the Allegheny Section of the MAA. Its region included Penn State, which had previously supplied the Philadelphia Section with several leaders and speakers, notably Frederick and Helen Owens. Yet our section thrived from 1933 to WWII. It met outside Pennsylvania for the first time in 1933, at the New Jersey College for Women. It also met at Lafayette in 1935. Other than those two, all meetings from 1934 until the end of WWII were held in the Philadelphia area, with Haverford and Ursinus hosting their first events.
     A new set of leaders emerged from 1933 to 1941, including H. W. Brinkmann (Swarthmore), J. A. Shohat (Penn), and C. O. Oakley and C. B. Allendoerfer of Haverford. Brinkman and Shohat were émigrés, as were several invited speakers during the 1930s, like Hans Rademacher, Salomon Bochner, and Richard Courant. Although Emmy Noether taught at Bryn Mawr, she did not participate in sectional activities. Most of the talks during this period were concerned with topics in real analysis and topology, the former mainly due to members of the Penn School of Analysis. Lectures on probability and statistics were given for the first time, by S. S. Wilks (Princeton). In addition, Dean A. G. Rau (Moravian) presented a notable talk on the curriculum.
     Unlike many sections and the national MAA, the Philadelphia Section did not cancel any meetings during WWII, though attendance reached a low of 27 in 1944. One year earlier, Bryn Mawr’s Anna Pell Wheeler became the first woman elected chair of the section, and in 1946 C. J. Rees (an F&M graduate), became the first chair from the state of Delaware.
     Of course, the lives of almost all American mathematicians were affected by the war. Among the speakers, Haskell Curry had left Penn State for the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, and A. A. Bennett and D. H. Lehmer were at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Not surprisingly, several speakers discussed war-related topics, like G. E. Raynor’s (Lehigh) talk on ballistics and Hilda Geiringer’s (Bryn Mawr) talk on numerical solutions of linear problems.
     The decade after the war witnessed a changing of the guard, with such new leaders as J. E. Davis (Drexel), E. P. Starke (Rutgers), G. C. Webber (Delaware), T. L. Koehler (Muhlenberg), and John Oxtoby (Bryn Mawr). In addition, R. D. Schafer (Penn) served as secretary and his wife, Alice Turner Schafer (Drexel), as a member of the Program Committee. In 1990 the Association for Women in Mathematics created a prize named after her.
     The section met outside the Philadelphia area for the first time since WWII in 1950 at Lehigh. In also met at Delaware in 1952 and at Princeton in 1954, when a record 115 attended. Several invited lecturers spoke on post-war developments: A. W. Tucker on game theory, Herman Goldstine on numerical analysis and computing, H. W. Kuhn on linear programming, and R. Fox on knot theory. Albert Wilansky (Lehigh) gave his first lecture in 1950; he would subsequently deliver four more lectures, the most of anyone.
     A forerunner of today’s panel discussions was held in 1954 when three people addressed “Mathematics through the television lens”. Panelist Marguerite Lehr (Bryn Mawr) not only chaired the section but became a national spokesperson for using this new technology in teaching mathematics.
     The New Jersey Section was founded in 1956, yet our section prospered. It was not until 1978, however, that the section’s name became “EPADEL” to reflect the resulting geographical reality.
     The American mathematical community expanded rapidly during the period 1956-1978. So did the Section. In 1963 the date of the annual meeting was switched to the Saturday before, instead of after, Thanksgiving; attendance blossomed, reaching a maximum of 225 at West Chester in 1970.
     The Section broadened considerably, meeting at various sites and being led by members from diverse institutions. Moreover, the character of the section changed from one devoted almost exclusively to the development of mathematics to one that sponsored such activities as contests, newsletters, panel discussions, sessions of undergraduate speakers, and films.
     Governance changed dramatically in 1968 with the addition of a vice-chair and an expanded Executive Committee replacing the Program Committee. Influential leaders included Willard Baxter (Delaware) and Doris Schattschneider (Moravian). Governors like Emil Grosswald and Jerry Porter (both at Penn) and David Rosen (Swarthmore) began to play more active roles in sectional affairs.
     Spring meetings were begun at Gettysburg in 1976. Although controversial initially, they have become a sectional staple over the past 25 years. 
     During the period 1978-2000, chairs customarily held office two years. Three women were elected chair in the 1990s: Nancy Hagelgans (Ursinus), Louise Berard (Wilkes), and Kay Somers (Moravian). Moreover, Deborah Frantz (Kutztown) became a national leader of student chapters, and Joanne Darken (Community College of Philadelphia) organized a groundbreaking meeting “Underrepresented groups in mathematics” at CCP. Popular summer workshops were conducted regularly by Marvin Brubaker at Messiah College.
     Community colleges, branch campuses, schools belonging to the State System, and a historically black institution hosted other meetings. Many activities at annual meetings concerned pedagogical issues. For the most part, invited lectures dealt almost evenly with algebra, analysis, and topology, but there were several presentations devoted to history, computer science, and applications.
     EPADEL has had a glorious past, playing a vital role in American mathematics. A more complete history will appear when the section celebrates its 75th anniversary at Lehigh in November.

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