The group of mostly lawyers and doctors gathered weekly to share refreshments and facetious stories, with many of their works being published in The Portico magazine.

[2] Many residents expected the city to become America's leading cultural and commercial center following the War of 1812 and the literary community dubbed Baltimore "the Rome of the United States".

[7] The idea for the club originated with physician Tobias Watkins and failed lawyer and businessman John Pierpont, who connected in their common association with Unitarianism.

[11] The group met every Saturday at 6:30 pm, with members taking turns hosting at their homes or offices, most of which were within the area of St. Paul, Calvert, Lexington, and Baltimore Streets.

[21] Delphians took turns presenting written works to each other, choosing a topic from a list of three, developed at the preceding meeting for that particular member.

When the club resumed meetings, membership elected William H. Winder as president to replace Watkins, who was then in federal prison for embezzlement from the US Treasury.

[29] Gwynn hosted all the club's meetings after August 1824 at his home on Bank Lane near St. Paul Street, which he called the Tusculum.

[11] The official club records, kept by Secretary Readel, became public when the Maryland Historical Society assumed ownership in 1920.

[7] Aside from the members, club records mention visitors Quizzifer Wuggs, Baron Brobdignag, Le Compere Mathieu, Peter Paragraph, Stoffle von Plump, Occasional Punnifer, and Don Gusto Comerostros.

[31] Some of these clubicular names may apply to men who were associated with the group and may have attended meetings, but who never joined, including Robert Goodloe Harper, Samuel Woodworth, William Wirt, John Howard Payne, Peter H. Cruse, John P. Kennedy, William West, Fielding Lucas Jr., Francis Foster, William Frick, John Cole, James Sheridan Knowles, Philip Laurenson, Francis Scott Key, and Rembrandt Peale.

[32] In addition, club records claim Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar as members to reinforce the organization's purported ancient origin.

[47] Neal himself included a fictionalized Delphian Club meeting in his 1823 novel Randolph, in which he referred to the group as "a heap of intellectual rubbish and glitter".