LORQUINIA 
THE LORQUIN NATURAL HISTORY CLUB 
In June of 1913 a small notice inserted by F. Grinnell, Jr., 
in a lyos Angeles daily newspaper, stated that a meeting of boys in- 
terested in natural history was to be held in the home of Harold Strawn, 
of this city, and that all boys interested in natural history were wel- 
come to attend. 
Two of the present active members, Harold Strawn and Fordyce 
Grinnell, Jr., were there on the designated evening, when the third — 
at the time a stranger — dropped in and introduced himself as Paul 
Ruthling, fond of snakes. It is to be doubted if, since that evening, 
one of these has missed more than three of the club meetings during 
the club's growth. 
It was at about this time that Mr. Grinnell also organized a similar 
meeting in the home of Rutherford Moore, but it was not until the 
first Friday in July, 1913, that a constitution committee was appointed. 
At the August meeting this committee, consisting of Ralph Church, 
Rutherford D. Moore and Paul Ruthling, submitted a constitution, 
which, with minor changes, was adopted by a group of ten boys, who 
elected officers and proceeded to be known thenceforth under the name 
of Ivorquin Natural History Club, limitei to twenty active members. 
From that time on meetings have been held regularly on the first 
Friday of every month, when some authority known to Mr. Grinnell 
or some other member, would address the club on the particular branch 
of Natural History in which the speaker was interested. Then, as now, 
the meetings were held in the homes of different members, but were 
usually the scenes of boyish disorder and "rough-housing." The club 
managed to pass through the first year of its existence without any 
extensive damage to furniture in the places of meeting. 
In 1914 Rutherford Moore, President, represented the club at the 
opening of the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, where the curator 
spoke of giving the club a room in the building. As Rutherford Moore 
had not seen the room and could not say anything difinite about the 
Museum's plans, our Secretary, James Cuzner, entered the following 
in the club minutes for January: "Rutherford Moore gave a descrip- 
tion of the Southwest Museum." 
During the years of 19 [3 and 1914 many of the less interested of 
the club members were dropped from the rolls of the club, generally 
because of irregular attendance. New members filled their places un- 
til now in 19 16, when, for the first time, there are no vacancies among 
the active members. 
