Aspects of the History of the International Union of Crystallography

The first General Assembly and Congress of the IUCr was held at Harvard in 1948. The background to that meeting and the subsequent history of the Union are outlined. The IUCr journal Acta Crystallographica has grown enormously in the last 50 years. The International Tables for Crystallography in their various volumes have been a remarkable achievement. Highly successful scientific Congresses have been held every three years.