Beginning in 1784, delegates of the Society of the Cincinnati’s constituent branches have gathered at least every three years—except for a few gaps in the nineteenth century—in what are known as Triennial Meetings. The Society’s Institution, adopted on May 13, 1783, directs that delegates to the Society will meet “on the first Monday in May, annually, so long as they shall be necessary, and afterwards, at least once in every three years.” The first general meeting convened in Philadelphia on May 4, 1784, and lasted two full weeks.

With one exception, Triennial Meetings were held in Philadelphia until 1851, when President General Henry A. S. Dearborn, in an effort to broaden opportunities for member participation, changed the venue to New York City. Since then, the site and responsibilities for planning the Triennials have rotated among the fourteen constituent societies. The Société des Cincinnati de France first hosted the delegates of the American and French branches in Paris in 1959 and again in 1974 and 2001.

A major change in the nature of the Triennial Meetings occurred in 1950, when the Society adopted a resolution limiting the offices of president general and vice president general to no more than two consecutive terms of three years each. Since that time, Triennial Meetings have become more ceremonial and have marked the regular transitions in the leadership—opportunities to express appreciation to outgoing officers and to inaugurate new presidents general and launch new administrations. Triennial Meetings remain an essential aspect of the governance of the modern Society, while preserving its principles and traditions in an unbroken link to its founders.

The following is a list of the Triennials and other general meetings of the Society of the Cincinnati since 1784.

1784   Philadelphia
1787   Philadelphia
1788   Philadelphia
1790   Philadelphia
1791   Philadelphia
1793   Philadelphia
1796   Philadelphia
1799   Philadelphia
1800   Philadelphia
1802   Washington, D.C.
1805   Philadelphia, Pa.
1808   Philadelphia
1811   Philadelphia
1812   Philadelphia
1814   No meeting
1817   No meeting
1820   No meeting
1823   No meeting
1825   Philadelphia
1829   Philadelphia
1832   Philadelphia
1835   Philadelphia

1838   Philadelphia
1839   Philadelphia
1841   No meeting
1844   Philadelphia
1848   Philadelphia
1851   New York
1854   Baltimore
1855   Charleston
1856   Trenton
1860   Philadelphia
1863   New York
1866   Trenton
1869   Baltimore
1872   Boston
1875   New York
1878   Philadelphia
1881   Charleston
1884   Princeton
1887   Newport
1890   Baltimore
1893   Boston
1896   Philadelphia

1899   New York
1902   Hartford
1905   Richmond
1908   Charleston
1911   Newport
1914   Baltimore
1917   Asheville, N.C.
1920   Portsmouth, N.H.
1923   Wilmington, Del.
1926   Princeton
1929   Boston
1932   Philadelphia
1935   New York
1938   Hartford
1941   Richmond
1944   New York
1947   Washington, D.C.
1950   Charleston
1953   Philadelphia
1956   Newport
1959   Paris
1962   Baltimore

1965   Boston
1968   Princeton
1971   Wilmington, N.C.
1974   Paris
1976   Washington, D.C.
1977   Hartford
1980   Williamsburg, Va.
1983   West Point and Tarrytown, N.Y.
1986   Philadelphia
1989   Savannah
1992   Baltimore
1995   Exeter, N.H., and Boston
1998   Charleston
2001   Paris
2004   Newport
2007   Wilmington, N.C.
2010   New Haven
2013   Princeton
2016   Williamsburg, Va.
2019   Philadelphia
2022   Charleston