The American Society of Plant Physiologists was founded in 1924 by a team led by Charles Albert Shull (1879–1962) and Rodney Beecher Harvey (1890–1945). The original membership consisted largely of the members of the Physiological Section of the Botanical Society, who desired a true individual organization for their field to more directly support development and research (following a 1920s trend of the specialization of botanical sciences). The Society's main publication, Plant Physiology, began publication in 1926 and continues to be a leading botanical journal. The Society was renamed in 2001 to the American Society of Plant Biologists.

The presidential role at ASPP is served in one-year terms following a year as vice-president/president-elect. This collection, therefore, primarily concerns the actions of Winslow Russell Briggs (1928–2019), the president of ASPP for 1975–1976. Briggs was a plant physiologist best known for his expertise and research in phytochemistry and phototropism. He received a PhD from Harvard in 1956 and accepted a teaching position in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He would return to Harvard in 1967 and remain there as a professor until 1973, when he was offered a position as the Director of the Department of Plant Biology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where he continued his research until his death. Beyond his involvement with the ASPP, he was also an editor of the Annual Review of Plant Physiology from 1973–1993, and served as the president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in 1981.