The beginnings of the Transactions of the Northeast Section of The Wildlife Society can be traced back to the 11th New England Game Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1939. Followed by the proceedings from the Northeastern Fish and Wildlife Conference, the Transactions came about as The Northeast Section of The Wildlife Society (NE TWS) matured and assumed the task of publishing the proceedings from the technical program of the conference of the Northeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA). This relationship between NE TWS and NEAFWA continued through the early 1990s. In 1992, NE TWS began publishing peer-reviewed articles in Northeast Wildlife as annual volumes independent of the annual conference. Northeast Wildlife was published until 2004 when the difficulties of publishing a peer-reviewed journal based on volunteer efforts forced NE TWS to end publication.
The Transactions have been available in private collections and among university libraries in the northeastern U.S., but nowhere has there been a complete collection of all the Proceedings, Transactions, and Northeast Wildlife available in one location. The intent of this collaboration between NE TWS and The Pennsylvania State University Libraries is to provide a repository of the proceedings and publications available to the general public to benefit the conservation of fish and wildlife resources.