Delaware Valley Ornithological Club

Founded in 1890, the club has held regular meetings at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for over 125 years,[1] and has published the periodical Cassinia since 1901.

[3] The DVOC was founded on February 3, 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by seven young men:[2][4][5] (1) William Lloyd Baily, an architect who held the post of Inspector of Birds and Mammals at the Port of Philadelphia for 45 years;[6] his uncle of the same name had authored the popular book Our Own Birds; a familiar natural history of the birds of the United States in 1867,[7] (2) George Spencer Morris, an architect who was the great-nephew (on his mother's side) of Dr. John Spencer;[8] Spencer had been a friend of Edward Harris, patron of John James Audubon,[9] (3) J. Harris Reed, an architect who later became Philadelphia City Inspector,[10] (4) Samuel Nicholson Rhoads, a farmer and bookseller who later suffered a mental breakdown and spent the remainder of his life in sanitariums,[11] (5) Witmer Stone, who would become a famed naturalist and President of the American Ornithologists' Union and editor of its journal The Auk,[5][12] (6) Spencer Trotter, a medical doctor and Professor of Biology at Swarthmore College, where Trotter Hall bears his name,[13][14] and (7) Charles Voelker, a German-born taxidermist.

The original constitution stipulated that members "shall be persons who are interested in ornithology considered in its widest sense,"[18] and so did not technically prevent women from joining the DVOC.

"[4] "A chink in the armor occurred that December when the Linnaean Society sent us Helen Hays as their exchange speaker with a talk on Great Gull Island.

"[4]"At the annual meeting on January 6, 1983, Kate Brethwaite, Mary Brokaw, Helen McWilliams, Naomi Murphy and Cynthia Uptegraft became the first women elected, soon to be followed by many more.

[19] The DVOC offers several awards to individuals who have made significant contributions to ornithology and/or to the club, presented at the annual banquet:[20]