Founded by Christopher Morley in 1934, the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI) was the first literary society devoted to celebrating the life and works of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes (created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Past members of the BSI include Isaac Asimov, Michael Dirda, Neil Gaiman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Vincent Starrett. Inspired by the BSI, the Speckled Band was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1940, and is one of the oldest Sherlock Holmes societies in the United States. Present at the first meeting of the Specked Band in Boston were five people: the founder, James Keddie, Sr. (1883-1942), his son James Keddie, Jr. (1907-1983), BSI chair Edgar W. Smith (1894-1960), Harold Wilmerding Bell (1885-1947), and P.M. (Percival Mason) Stone (1886-1965). James Keddie, Jr. assumed leadership of the Speckled Band in 1943 upon his father’s death.
The Speckled Band met annually and, in its early years, maintained close ties with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and members of the Boston news media. Membership was by invitation only, and until 1991, the society admitted only men. Its annual dinners, typically held in April, commemorated the month in which characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson investigated Stoke Moran, the manor featured in The Adventure of the Speckled Band. The gatherings traditionally included a period-appropriate dinner menu, a scholarly quiz, a reading competition, and a sing-along. As of 2026, the society continues to host annual meetings and recognizes outstanding scholarship with awards such as the silver Sherlock Holmes Bowl.
The Speckled Band also irregularly published a collection of Sherlockian writings, starting with The Second Cab (1947), followed by The Third Cab (1960), The Fourth Cab (1976), The Best of the Cabs (1980), The Fifth Cab (1988), and The Sixth Cab (2015), a 75th anniversary edition.
