The Scholarly Societies Project lists international scholarly societies in different fields and provides links to their websites. There should be some history of the Society on the website that will tell you when it was founded. The site will also list the Society's publications. There may be an online archive linked from the site, but most likely the publications will be in the Library's holdings, either electronically or in print.
The Scholarly Societies Project also includes a section on the oldest Scholarly Societies, and for each society their primary journal is listed. This is particularly helpful because the author of the site lists in chronological order the many title variations that occur, information you may need to track down the journal.
Some examples of the types of publications you may find include:
Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society of London)
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society
Accademia del cimento records
Includes scientific papers and letters written to Lorenzo Magalotti, Secretary of the Accademia circa 1661-1711. In Italian.
American Society for the Advancement of Science - Pacific Division
The records of the Pacific Division of the American Society for the Advancement of Science consist of correspondence, agendas and minutes of the Executive Committee and Council and files relating to its committees and sections, annual meetings and symposia, and the publications program. The records date from its founding in 1914 through the early 2000s.
American Society for Virology
The American Society for Virology was founded in 1981 to provide a forum for investigators of human, animal, insect, plant, fungal, and bacterial viruses .The collection includes by-laws, correspondence, programs, meeting minutes, workshop materials, travel grant reports, etc.
Cooper Ornithological Society Records
The Cooper Ornithological Society Records, 1874-1993, document the organization's history from its origins as a small association of naturalists to its current status as a scientific society with an extensive international membership. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence and administrative records produced by the Board of Directors and officers. Also included are committee minutes, annual meeting materials, individual member correspondence and field notes, and materials relating to the official publications of the society.
San Francisco Microscopical Society Records
Consists of records chronicling the first incarnation of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, 1870-1905, including organizational records, meeting minutes, correspondence, indexes of publications, scrapbooks of clippings, fern mounts, photographs of microscopic organisms, and papers written and presented by members.