Our History
John Triana has done much research on the history of the club. He has located early records of the club. Included here are some of his findings.
Photo © Chris Howe
A Century Old Birding Journal is Found
In March 2011, John Triana, a historian of the New Haven Bird Club, received word from Patrick Comins of Audubon Connecticut about a remarkable discovery: a notebook containing detailed bird observations from the New Haven area, dating back to 1913. The book was in the hands of Don Beimborn of Minnesota. Beimborn had scanned the cover and several pages of notes, noting that the journal also contained entries from trips to New Hampshire and South Dakota. The notebook had been given to him by a friend years earlier, who was more interested in the glass case that accompanied it than the journal itself.
According to their recollections, the glass case and the notebook had never originally been paired. Crucially, the journal contained no author’s name. Intrigued by the mystery, the Club historian immediately requested the notebook, which Beimborn agreed to mail.
Tracking the 1913 Journal
Upon receiving it, the historian discovered that the journal was far more than a casual record. It was a meticulous, day-by-day account of every bird the author observed in 1913, complete with location and weather details. Beyond New Haven, the author recorded observations in Middletown, Connecticut; South Dakota; New York; and Tilton, New Hampshire. Patterns emerged: the year began in Tilton, then shifted to Connecticut, with weekdays in New Haven and weekends in Middletown. Summer trips took the author to South Dakota and New York, followed by a brief return to New Hampshire in September, before resuming the Connecticut routine. By December, the author was back in Tilton for Christmas.
The historian’s first assumption was that the author might have been a New Haven Bird Club member, given the detailed local observations and travel habits. Using the Club archives and other sources, he began investigating where likely candidates were in 1913. Members who were documented elsewhere could be eliminated, while those in the recorded locations remained possibilities. The notebook’s precision made this an unusually effective method of narrowing the search.
Prominent names were systematically ruled out. Herbert K. Job was photographing in Manitoba in July. Dwight Pangburn traveled by motorcycle to Buffalo and Kansas City. Louis Bishop, Freeman Burr, Clifford Pangburn, Edgar Stiles, Orville Petty, Philip Buttrick, Aretas Saunders, Albert Honywill, and William Prentiss all had documented absences from the journal’s locations in 1913.
At the same time, the historian reached out to contacts in South Dakota to cross-reference summer entries. Many responded, but few combined interests in both ornithology and local history. Eventually, Ricky D. Olsen of Fort Pierre, South Dakota, proved exceptional, spending hours combing through old hotel ledgers, newspapers, and other historical records. The historian shared copies of the South Dakota records from the journal to aid Olsen’s research.
The Search Narrows
By mid-April, Connecticut and South Dakota offered no definitive leads. Then a thought occurred: perhaps the author had participated in the 1913 Christmas Bird Count. The journal’s December 25 entry placed him in Tilton, New Hampshire. Cross-referencing with the 1914 edition of Bird Lore, which published the 1913 CBC results, revealed a single Tilton entry. Species counts matched perfectly: Canadian Ruffed Grouse, Redpolls, and others all corresponded exactly. The 1913 Tilton count had been conducted by three men: George L. Plimpton, Ernest R. Perkins, and Edward H. Perkins. The search had been reduced from millions of possibilities to three.
The next step was to examine the three men. Census and educational records revealed that George Lincoln Plimpton was a Tilton teacher and headmaster, married with three children in 1913, and a 1891 Wesleyan graduate—linking him to Middletown—but with no Yale connection. The Perkins brothers, Ernest and Edward, were living in Tilton, aged 19 and 26. Edward H. Perkins would later earn a Yale graduate degree in 1919, while Ernest left no further record of significance.
Confirming the Author & Returning the Legacy
Further investigation confirmed Edward’s identity. He had studied geology at Yale, briefly attended Rhode Island State College, and taught geology at Colby College in Maine. A 1922 Bird Lore article authored by Edward recounted a chickadee bathing in a robin’s nest in Tilton several winters prior—tying him conclusively to the journal. Edward’s Connecticut connection also explained the Middletown entries: as a graduate student at Yale in 1913, he spent weekends likely with his brother in Middletown. His summer travels to South Dakota and his Christmas visit to Tilton aligned perfectly with the journal. On Christmas Day, he participated in the Tilton CBC alongside his brother and George Plimpton.
With Edward identified as the author, the final step was to return the journal to his family. Genealogical research led to the obituary of his daughter, Elizabeth Perkins Stanley, who had passed away in 2003, survived by her husband Walter C. Stanley and five children. After sending letters and receiving no response, the historian was eventually contacted by Walter in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Walter confirmed the family connection and shared personal reflections about his Yale roots and the bird sanctuary at Colby College named for his in-laws.
Having traced the journal’s journey from its creation in 1913 to its rightful descendants in 2011, the historian finally sent it back to the Perkins family, completing the circle and preserving the legacy of Edward H. Perkins’ meticulous observations of a century past.
