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Excerpt from
A History of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, The First One Hundred Years
by Phillips M. Street (as published in Cassinia No. 63 1988-1989 Centennial Edition)

The D.V.O.C Collection

The beginnings of this collection are described in the scrapbook. In the summer of 1891 Messrs. J. Harris Reed and Witmer Stone conceived the idea of forming a collection of nests and eggs of Pennsylvania and New Jersey birds for the museum of the Academy. They brought together such specimens as were contained in their private collections to which Mr. Baily added a number from his cabinet. These were mounted on stands and exhibited at a meeting of the Club held October 6, 1891, after which they were presented to the Academy on the condition that the collection be kept separate as a Separate local collection, duplicates to be disposed of as the Ornithological Might suggest as better specimens were presented. In 1892 the first groups were prepared , and from this nucleus has grown the present collection - one of the most attractive features of the museum.

The minutes of the meeting of November 20, 1941, tell of a talk that evening by Fred Schmid of the Academy staff about the new bird hall and a preview afterward of the nearly completed Local Room and Audubon Hall. "This Delaware Valley collection of birds and nests by the Club has now been used in large measure for the birds for the Local Room. The Audubon Hall promises to be one of the finest presentation of birds of the world.