The Society publishes two quarterly publications, Manuscripts and The Manuscript Society News, which are sent to each member without charge.

Manuscripts is a journal with an established reputation for excellent scholarly and collector articles reflecting the diverse interests of the field of autographs and manuscripts. Issues give views on the principal areas of historical and literary collecting, present auction results and lists of new members, and publicize sources of autographs through dealer and auctioneer advertisements.

The News features information on the whole contemporary world of autographs, including important discoveries, acquisitions, trends, disasters, preservation, upcoming sales, legal questions, thefts, forgeries, replevin actions, and exhibits, as well as news about the Society and its members. Collectors and scholars seeking or offering manuscript material will soon be permitted to place their notices in a special section.

The Society's chief activity is a five-day annual meeting, held in a community offering good manuscript resources for viewing. The programs feature exhibitions, panel discussions, speakers of note, tours, and social occasions for fellowship and interchange of ideas. Major cities have alternated with smaller communities as the locales for these meetings, in order to provide a varied view of the manuscript resources available. Seven annual meetings have been held abroad: London in 1970 and 1986, Ottawa in 1978, Dublin in 1991 and 2002, Edinburgh in 1996, Tallinn and Tartu in 2007, and Tucson and Phoenix in 2008

Local events in places like New York, the Twin Cities, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, and Southern California offer members a chance to view local manuscript holdings in their area and to exchange ideas.

A comprehensive monograph, entitled AUTOGRAPHS AND MANUSCRIPTS: A COLLECTOR'S MANUAL, was published under the auspices of the Society by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1978. Its long definitive articles on many aspects of collecting, arranging, and preserving manuscript material, all of them written by experts in their fields, have caused the book to be hailed as a classic treatment of the subject. In 1984. Greenwood Press published MANUSCRIPTS: THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS, an anthology of 50 memorable articles from the Society's journal. THE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR'S CHECKLIST was published by the Society in 1990, providing lists to aid collectors in a number of popular collecting fields. The 50-year history of the Society, and of autograph collecting in general, HISTORY IN YOUR HANDS, was published in 1997.

To celebrate the bicentennial of the United States, in 1975 and 1976, a traveling exhibit was sponsored by the Society in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution. It consisted of documents written during the early months of the Revolution, which were loaned for the purpose by members of the Society from their own collections. Also, the Society has aided members involved in litigation over contested ownership of manuscript material where the rights of individuals to own historic documents have been questioned.

The Manuscript Society welcomes new members. The annual individual or institutional membership fee is $60 in North America and $75 outside North America (includes $15 postal charges). Contributing memberships at $100, sustaining memberships at $250, benefactor memberships at $500, and patron memberships at $1000 help support the Society's activities. Memberships are on a calendar year basis; new members joining after July 1 may pay half the annual rate. Funds are used to support the publication and scholarship programs: to inform and support members when their ownership to manuscripts is challenged by state or federal authorities; and to support the management of the Society.