This article examines the contributions of Selden Hopkins in helping to establish and institutionalize the accounting profession in the USA during the two decades before the passage of the first Certified Public Accountant (CPA) law in 1896. He was the first editor of the first accounting journal in America, The Book-Keeper, and also instrumental in the development of the first professional association, the Institute of Accounts (originally called the Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers of the City of New York). Through his involvement as the editor of a number of accounting journals and as a key player of the Institute of Accounts, Hopkins imparted professionalism to the book-keepers and accountants in the USA before the legal recognition of the accounting profession. Hopkins was also one of the contributors in the early establishment of the `science of accounts' where accounting came to be accepted by accountants and the public as worthy of the same recognition and respect as other fields of science.
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