Formation | 1973 |
---|---|
Founder | Frederick W. Lehmann IV |
Founded at | St. Louis, Missouri |
Dissolved | 1988 |
Legal status | Defunct |
Headquarters | 4554 McPherson Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, United States 63108 130 Wooton Road, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England |
Official language | English |
Owner | Frederick W. Lehmann IV (president) Christopher Martin (vice-president) [1] |
The International Micropatrological Society (IMS) was an American learned society and research institute dedicated to the study of micronations. [2] Founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Lehmann IV of St. Louis, Missouri, the IMS coined micropatrology as the study of micronations and micronationalism. [3] [4] It had documented 128 micronations and similar political entities by 1976. [5]
The IMS assessed the legitimacy of micronational claims in five categories—B ("bogus"), E ("extinct"), F ("fiction"), T ("traditional") and O ("other"); according to the IMS, only micronations rated T or O had good chances of achieving independence. [5] Owned by Lehmann and Christopher Martin, the IMS had offices in St. Louis, Missouri and King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. [4] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations , the IMS was disestablished in 1988. [6]
The IMS was founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Lehmann IV of St. Louis, Missouri. [3] [4] It was the first organisation dedicated to studying micronations. [7] In 1977, documents from the IMS supposedly supporting the legitimacy of the Most Serene Federal Republic of Montmartre were used in a court case by Montmartre President Barry Alan Richmond to advocate for the micronation's inclusion in the phone directory of New York Telephone. [8] The IMS contributed its research to Erwin Strauss's 1979 How to Start Your Own Country about micronations. [9] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IMS was disestablished in 1988. [6]
In 1996, Swiss author Fabrice O'Driscoll of Aix-Marseille University founded the French Institute of Micropatrology (French : l'Institut français de micropatrologie) as an unofficial continuation of the IMS. [10] [11] In 2000, O'Driscoll wrote the book Ils ne siègent pas à l'ONU: revue de quelques micro-Etats, micro-nations et autres entités éphémères (They don't sit at the UN: a review of some micro-states, micro-nations and other ephemeral entities), which details over 600 micronations. [12] As of 2009, the records of the IMS were stored in a rented room in an office building in downtown St. Louis, where Lehmann had been storing various other possessions such as Chippendale furniture since 1998. [13]