The NCSE was established in the late 1970s and early 1980s to support grass-roots organizations that were combating efforts of creationists to compromise the teaching of evolution in their communities or states. Originally these organizations, echoing groups from the Revolutionary War, were called the "Committees of Correspondence," and they existed with varying degrees of activism in a dozen or so states. The first wave of these organizations gradually faded away as local problems diminished, and efforts to legislate creationism at the state level were unsuccessful (with a couple of noted exceptions: the Ohio Committee of Correspondence morphed into the Ohio Center for Science Education). When the intelligent design movement gained traction in the late 1990s and early 2000s, grass-roots groups sprang up again, and the term "citizens for science" (rather than "committees of correspondence") emerged as a collective term for them. These, too, tended to be short-lived, fading when the local or state crisis was over. The exception is the New Mexicans for Science and Reason, which was a scientific skepticism-oriented organization that adopted anti-creationism as one of its causes when the topic appeared in New Mexico in the 1990s. To "start anew" and separate the anti-creationist efforts from other projects, NMSR founded CESE (The Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education). It had its own publication, The Beacon. NMSR and CESE continue as of this writing (2020). Some of these CfS organizations had digital "newsletters" or websites used to communicate with members or the public, such as the Texas Citizens for Science, but unfortunately many of these are no longer available. CfS groups also formed in Canada, and the archive includes the publication from one such organization, the Ontario Association for the Support of Integrity in Science Education, or OASIS.
The CfS groups often did not publish consecutively, sometimes leaving gaps between issues. NCSE holdings are incomplete. The largest collection is that of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason, NMSR. Holdings range from 1995 through 2007. We also have copies of The Beacon, a publication from a spinoff of NMSR, The Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education, or CESE, 2001—2005, 2010. Also included is the Ohio Committee of Correspondence/Ohio Center for Science Education, 1987 – 1990; OASIS (Ontario, Canada) 1992, 1994, 1995; and Northwest Creationist Watchers, 1997.
[Identification of Item]. Citizens for Science Publications, National Center for Science Education Archives.
