| Activity | 1893 helped to establish the Cooper Ornithological Club of California
His earliest articles on birds and egg collecting were written in 1892 and over the next ten years he published 73 articles or notes. He worked at the Santa Clara Valley Bank and in his spare time he was able to acquire a large collection of eggs and specimens. Much of this collecting was done in the Santa Clara Valley, but he also made several trips to the Farallon Islands and to the Sierra Nevada. Barlow became ill with tuberculosis in the summer of 1902 and died shortly after.
Barlow was the Secretary of the Cooper Ornithological Club for its first nine years. Initially, Henry Taylor’s new publication, the Nidiologist, was used to report on meetings of the club and to discuss business. However, when Taylor’s magazine failed in 1897, it was necessary for the club to find other means to facilitate communication among the members. Barlow promoted the publishing of a club journal, and over the objections of the ‘graybeards,’ the Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club was first published in 1899 with Chester Barlow as editor. The next year, the club renamed their journal the Condor, the name that it holds today. Chester Barlow’s work as Secretary of the Cooper Ornithological Club and his new job as Editor of the Condor were at the center of this new organization in its early years. Yet it was not so much his considerable efforts that held the club together as his spirit and good humor. |