The Korean Association of Anatomists has been established on October 20, 1947 at Seoul National University with 12 founding members. They first named the association "Chosun Association of Anatomists" and appointed Il-Cheon Chung and Sae-Jin Na as first chairman and vice-chairman. In December 30th of the same year, the group joined the Chosun Medical Association as a subcommittee. The group changed the name to "Korean Association of Anatomist" in October 22, 1949 and held the first symposium at the Severance Medical College in front of Seoul Station. Due to the Korean War, all the medical education was halted, but the portion of educational training was resumed after the installation of wartime universities in Gwangju and Pusan in May 4, 1951. The association was resumed in 1954, enacting the anatomical terms for the first time. The members of KAA also played a key role in the establishment of Korean Association of Physical Anthropologists (KAPA).

Until late 1950s, the association consisted of 10-20 members and published less than 10 research articles. However, the membership increased to 50 in 1960s. In 1964, the invited lectures were first given by two Japanese scholars. As more medical colleges were established, the membership increased as well as exchange of research experience and academic knowledge. The KAA held a joint symposium with KAPA until 1987 and finally held the first symposium on their own in 1988. The group held symposiums for 55 times up to 2005, but a planned symposium was unfortunately foundered by state of emergency in October 26.

The “Journal of Korean Anatomists” was first published in December 1968, and it was published once a year until 1974. As study condition got improved among Korean universities, members of our association actively involved in research, enabling an increase in the number of publication to twice a year to meet the requisite for academic journal. Since then, more members reported their studies in our journal, the “Journal of Korean Anatomists” was published quarterly since the 23rd edition in 1990 and six times a year since the 28th edition in 1995. The number of publication was down to quarterly from 40 editions a year in 2007 "Korean Journal of Anatomy" was reorganized into an English journal for the purpose of entering SCI from March 2010, Volume 43, Issue 1. The title was changed into "Anatomy & Cell Biology" (www.acbjournal.com, pISSN 2093-3665, eISSN 2093-3773), and it has been issued four times a year (March, June, September, December) to date. "Anatomy & Cell Biology" covers a wide range of subjects, from visual anatomy, histology, neuroanatomy, and embryology, which are the bases of anatomy, to genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and biotechnology, which are areas of application. The journal has a detailed field, 1. Original research articles, 2. Case reports and technical reports, 3. Short communications, 4. Review articles. The submitted papers will be reviewed by the same field judges under the quick progress by editor and supervision of the journal editorial board (https://www.anatomy.re.kr/, April 2017) via the journal homepage, research papers are submitted from not only members but also overseas researchers time to time. The accepted papers are evaluated by the judges commissioned according to their major and are being made into high-quality journals. "Anatomy & Cell Biology" was listed on PubMed Central on December 28, 2010, and listed on SCOPUS on August 6, 2015. And it was completed the application for SCIE entry on September 29, 2014, and wait for entry. Until March 2019, it has been published volume 52, issue 1.

The KAA joined IFAA (International Federation of Association of Anatomists) in 1975. The group also agreed to hold a joint symposium with Japanese Society of Anatomists in 1987 and continued to hold the events every other year. The first joint symposium was at Pusan in 1988, the second at Tokyo in 1990, the third at Seoul in 1992, and the fourth at Yamagata in 1994. During the fourth meeting, the two groups decided to found Asian International Conference of Anatomy, and the first meeting was held at Seoul in 1996. More than 330 scholars from 15 countries gathered for the conference with 9 invited lectures, 20 symposiums, and 230 posters. This event enhanced the status of KAA and the potential of Korean Anatomists. The Asian International Conference of Anatomy was held in Beijing (China, 1999), Hamamatsu (Japan, 2002), and Kusadasi (Turkey, 2005), developing as a new forum for academic exchange between anatomists from the Asia-Pacific nations. The Asia Pacific International Congress of Anatomists (APICA), which was founded in accordance with KAA's proposal, is further developed as a forum for academic exchanges for anatomists among Asian and Pacific Islander countries (North America, Central and South America and Oceania) through 1^st (Seoul, Korea, 1996), 2^nd (Beijing, China, 1999), 3^rd (Hamamatsu, Japan, 2002), 4^th (Kusadasi, Turkey, 2005), 5^th (Tehran, Iran, 2008), 6^th (Surabaya, Indonesia, 2011), and 7^th (Singapore, 2016) conferences. In particular, 735 participants from 23 countries participated in the 8^th APICA in Korea (Busan, 2018) successfully.

Many universities had trouble supplying cadevars for medical education until 1971. With the help of the mayor of Seoul, the KAA established a committee on collecting cadevars and allocated cadevars to each universities. However, unfortunate events in Pusan and Daejun Welfare centers made it harder for the committee to supply cadevars for medical education. At that time, 30 to 40 students were studying with one cadevar. The KAA asked for support by informing the seriousness of this issue to media and promoting a campaign to enact a law. In January 5, 1995, the "Autopsy and Preservation Act" was legislated. More people started to donate their corpses to medical science since the organ donation of Minister Jin-Tak Park. The situation was significantly improved from 1995, and medical colleges erected a monument and cinerarium to honor the people who donated their corpses.

The first anatomical term dictionary was published in September 30, 1965, but most of the terms were translated from Japanese terms until mid-1970s. However, the KAA felt the raised need for Korean terms and started to reorganize the anatomical term from 1975. The “Anatomical Terminology” containing gross anatomy terms were first published in 1978, and “Histological & Embryological Terminology” in 1980. The KAA reorganized a committee in the purpose of creating appropriate Korean terms in 1986, and they published the third edition of “Anatomical Terminology.” This achievement was awarded with an appreciation plaque from the Minister of Culture (1990) and the prestigious President’s Award (1991). The committee have been deliberating Korean anatomical terminology by publishing new editions of “Anatomical Terminology,” and these terms are mainly selected by the book “Medical Terminology” published by Korean Medical Association. "4^th Anatomical Terminology (1996, Academia)" has been widely used in the "4^th Medical Terminology (Academia)" published by the Korean Medical Association in January 2001. Since then, "5^th Anatomical Terminology (2005, Academia)" and "5^th Anatomical Terminology (2013, electronic version)" were published. "6^th Anatomical Terminology (2014, Academia)" was published in October 2014. In particular, all the terms of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology were combined in “6th Anatomical Terminology" as in "4^th Anatomical Terminology" that has been published 18 years ago. "6th Anatomical Terminology" has 18,557 terms, including 7,851 anatomical terms, 4,270 histologic terms, and 6,436 embryological terms.

The need of Korean textbook for anatomy was first raised in 1950s, but only small number of professors participated in preparing summerized versions until 1990s. The KAA orgnaized a committee on the compilation of textbook in 1991, members from each university gathered to publish a book for systematic anatomy, and they published the “Anatomy” textbook after 8 years. The committee also published “Topographical Anatomy” in 2002 and issued a revised edition of the textbook in 2005.

In 1993, members of KAA made a club called "Lovers of Anatomy" on the internet, which became the first club in medical field. As more people started to have access to the internet, the KAA opened a web page (https://anatomy.re.kr) providing new information on KAA and its journal ACB, as well as medical education and research.

Several committees were set up in the society to conduct various projects more effectively. In 1997, there were six research committees, Journal Editing Committee, Fund Management Committee, Terminology Review Committee, Foreign Exchange Committee, Textbook Compilation Committee, and Article Qualification Review Committee. And about 10 members were in each committee. In 2006, four committees (Academic Committees, Education Committees, Informatization Committees, Records Preservation Committee) were installed and operated to promote the operation of the association. In the current year (2019), the Article qualification review committee is abolished and six committees (General Affairs Committee, Research Ethics Committee, Chairman and Presidential Candidate Recommendation Committee, Business Support Committee, Policy Committee, and Special Committee) have been newly established, and a total of 15 committees are operated.