Jesse Arnold and the ASA

Jesse Arnold was an early member of the Avicultural Society of America (ASA). (Pictured at left is William Sheffler skinning a parrot.)

The Avicultural Society was founded in 1927 in New York. Over the next couple of years, its membership increasingly shifted to Southern California because the climate was more favorable for rearing and breeding exotic birds like parrots. In 1931 this new society had an exotic bird show in Long Beach, California where Jesse ("Jess") Arnold lived. Jesse and many other Southern California members of the association organized this show and exhibited their birds there. Many members bred parrots and parakeets; some members were active capturing live birds in Mexico for museum specimens and for captive breeding.

During the bird show, a group of officers of the society went to Catalina Island to visit the newly opened Catalina Bird Park. Jess was a Vice President at the time. This picture was taken on the island during the 1931 officer's visit.

From Left to Right: Jesse H. Arnold, Lee S. Crandall, Andrew G. Orear, William H. Browning, Charles C. Broadwater, and Leon Patrick

Jesse H. Arnold was a Vice President; Lee S. Crandall (author of "The Management of Wild Animals in Captivity" 1965) was a Vice President and Curator of Birds at the Bronx Zoo; Andrew G. Orear was on the Board of Trustees; William H. Browning was President; Charles C. Broadwater was on the Board of Trustees; and Leon Patrick was a Vice President. For more biographical information on members from 1931 see this spreadsheet (pdf; excel).

The second photo was taken in approximately 1936, at an Avicultural Society Meeting. Of particular interest are the inclusion of many women as early members of the society:

We know the identities of eight people in the photo:
1. Jesse H. Arnold
2. George D. Simpson
3. William J. Sheffler
4. Charles C. Broadwater
5. Leon Patrick
6. Susan J. Tomlinson
7. Andrew G. Orear
8. William H. Browning

We think the following people may be in the photo as well:

• Mrs. Cerrena A. Black; proprietess of Latresa Pheasantry, Gardena, CA
  
• Mrs. Fannie W. Hood; husband a salesman of oil pumps
  
• Mrs. Gertrude C. Behrens; husband an accountant
  
• James C. Edwards; owner of Petland in LA, CA; 514 West Eight Street
  
• James Ewins; retired (bedding merchant in 1920)
  
• Dr. Clarence H. Heard; optometrist
  
• Gilbert C. Lee; President, Insto Company
  
• Karl L. Koch; Curator of Birds, San Diego Zoo
  
• Karl T. Plath; commercial artist; worked with Lincoln Park Zoo; first Curator of Birds at Brookfield Zoo
  
• Dr. Ralph A. Wood; physician?; real estate
• Frank Gambo; proprietor of pet shop
  
• Pompeo M. Maresi; lawyer
  
• Francis H. Rudkin Sr.; automobile dealer
  
• Harry M. Park; druggist with a pharmacy degree from USC; later the owner of pet supply company
  
• Hugh G. Bassett; editor, weekly newspaper
  
• Robert S. Dorris; building contractor
  
• Robert J. Van Drimlen; Proprietor of Van Drimlen's Bird Farm, Santa Ana, CA
  

If you can recognize any of these people in the photo, please let us know!

In around 1928-32, William Sheffler organized a trip to Sonora, Mexico to collect live bird as well as museum specimens. On this trip, the expedition visited Rancho Guirocoba ("Buzzard Head Ranch"), owned at the time by James McCarty.

Seen in the above photo are from Left to Right: Ira D. Putnam, Glenn F. Purvine, Jesse H. Arnold, Jim McCarty, William J. Sheffler, Andrew G. Orear, Dr. Nevall R. McCoy. The bird in the cage is a Military Macaw.

Rancho Guirocoba was an important base of operations for Zoologists and Botanists who worked in Sonora from 1920-50. You can read more about the Ranch in Boy's Life Magazine (1953). McCarty was an iconic figure: a wonderful biographical portrait of him was published in 1950 in Robert T. Moore's "Descent into the Barranca del Cobre" (Natural History vol. 49 issue 10, pp. 440-445, 473-74; Dec. 1950)

Courtyard of Rancho Guirocoba; McCarty seated with Members of His Family