The club initially was a small informal group of
William Brewster's childhood friends, all of whom shared his interest in ornithology. These friends included
Daniel Chester French,
Ruthven Deane and
Henry Henshaw. In 1872, Henshaw suggested that the group meet on a regular weekly schedule at Brewster's house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On November 17, 1873, the group, which had expanded to include
Henry Augustus Purdie,
William Earl Dodge Scott, Francis P. Atkinson, Harry Balch Bailey,
Ernest Ingersoll, and Walter Woodman, met to formally establish the first American ornithological club. They named their club after the
botanist and
zoologist Thomas Nuttall who published the first
field guide for North American birds,
Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada (1832). By 1876 the club determined to publish the
Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, which was the first purely ornithological journal, under the joint editorship of
Charles Johnson Maynard and Henry Augustus Purdie. However, after one issue, Maynard and Purdie were removed as editors and
Joel Asaph Allen, who had recently joined the club, became the sole editor-in-chief. == Notable members ==