The institute was founded in 1879, with Charles Eliot Norton as its first President until 1890. It was chartered in 1906 by the United States Congress. The institute currently has about 9,000 members in 102 local societies.
Harrison Ford, who portrayed the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones in four films, serves as a General Trustee on the Governing Board of the AIA.1
The AIA has just started a new Site Preservation Task Force and Program, chaired by Inca archaeologist Lawrence S. Coben and Charlie Steinmetz. The Task Force focuses on preservation in non-OECD countries, Mexico, Turkey and Greece, and seeks to utilize new paradigms of preservation that incorporate local empowerment and sustainable economic development.