Early Conventions

The first ten years of SF conventions were a mixed bag, but even the largest was small by modern standards, and some were literally a few guys getting together for a day. But travel was difficult and the tendency of the time was to call nearly any planned get-together (of fans from different cities a "convention" (or a "conference." See the Fancyclopedia 2 article on “con” for the baroque early terminology).

Anglofan historians tend to take a hard line on what was or wasn’t a convention (they would omit the First Convention if they could). We are inclined to take the participants’ estimation, even if they declared conhood after the event.

Year	Date	Convention	Size	Location	Notes
1936	October 22	First Convention	12–18	Philadelphia	later called the First Eastern
1937	January 3	Other First Convention	~20	Leeds, UK
	February 21	Second Eastern	30–40	New York
	October 30	Third Eastern	~30	Philadelphia
1938	April 10	Second British Convention	43	London	called Necronomicon in '57
	May 29	Newark Convention	>100	Newark, NJ	aka Fourth Eastern aka First National
	October 16	1938 Philadelphia Conference	> 25	Philadelphia
1939	May 21	Third British Convention	~40	London
	July 2–4	NyCon	150–200	New York	the first Worldcon
	Fall	Philcon 1939		Philadelphia
	Early June	OSA Pow-Wow	3	Tulsa, OK	Oklahoma state convention
1940	Early 1940	Washington Confabulation 1	3	Washington, DC
	April	Third Chicago Conference	4	Chicago
	September 1–2	Chicon	128	Chicago
	November 10	Phillycon 1940		Philadelphia
	December 6	First Sydney Conference	10	Sydney, NSW, Australia
1941	Late February	Boskone I	~25	Winchester, MA	at the Swishers’ home
	April 6	Second Sydney Conference	~12	Sydney, NSW, Australia
	May 4	All-Eastern Science Fiction Conference		Newark, NJ	May not have been held
	Summer	Washington Confabulation 2	6?	Washington, DC	issued Washington Manifesto
	July 4–6	Denvention	~100	Denver
	September 20–21	Bombcon	13	London
	November 16	1941 Michiconference		Jackson, MI
1942	January	PhilCo 1942		Philadelphia	Belatedly announced, called off in favor of Boskone II
	January 4	Third Sydney Conference	8	Sydney, NSW, Australia
	February 22	Boskone II	25	Boston, MA
	September 27	1942 Michiconference	~25	Jackson, MI
	November 22	Bloomington Conference	9	Bloomington, IL	possibly a poker game
	November 29	Hastings S-F Conference	v. small	Hastings, MN	possibly a drinking party
	Late 1942	Pacificon Jr.		Los Angeles
1943	February 28	Boskone III	14	Boston, MA
	Spring	Live Oak Conference	3	Live Oak, FL	A Cosmic Circle event
	April 23–26	Midvention	14	Leicester, UK	i. e. over Easter
	April 26–27	Midgicon ("Midget Chicon")	8	Chicago	Al Ashley et al. on bookbuying spree, moots Slan Center
	May 16	Staplecon 1	~12	San Francisco
	June 26/28–July 1	Mainecon or Maine Stf Conference	3	Rockland, ME	Art Widner, Russ Chauvenet bike to Norm Stanley’s
	Early July	Mainecon, Jr.	2	Rockland again	visit by Claude Degler
	Mid-1943	Schenectacon	2-4	Schenectady, NY
	October 30	1943 Michiconference	22	Battle Creek, MI
	November 21	Staplecon 2		San Francisco
	"Around the end" of 1943	Fancon		Bloomington, IL
	Late 1943?	Councilcon		Newcastle, IN	Possibly occurred only in Claude Degler’s imagination
	December 31, 1943–January 2, 1944	Norcon	small	Manchester, UK
1944	April 8–9	Eastercon		London
	May 28	Staplecon 3	9	San Francisco
	June 17–19	Michicon 4	23	Battle Creek, MI
	August 27	Dovention	11	Dover, NJ
	September 1–2	Midvention 2	6–8	Leicester, UK	or "Midventionette"
	October 7–9	Little Chicon	"small"	Chicago
	?	Bufflocon		Buffalo, NY	Slan Shack visiting Ken Krueger
	December 29, 1944–January 1, 1945	Norcon 2	small	Manchester, UK	Announced — did it occur?
1945	February 3–4	Boskone IV	5	Winchester, MA	at the Swishers’ home
	July 7–8	1945 Michiconference	15-20	Battle Creek, MI
	September 2	Boskone V	9	Salem, MA	AKA First New England SF Conference
1946	March 3	FPWESFC		Newark, NJ
	April 6–7	First Post-Radar-Contact-with-the-Moon Con	16	Chicago
	July 4–7	Pacificon	130	Los Angeles
	October 12–13	Centracon	25	Chicago
	October 27	Phillycon 1946		Philadelphia

See also the Fancyclopedia 2 (1959) articles on Con, fan visits and fan gatherings.

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Fanhistory

1936—1946

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