I need to find my copy of Frauenfelder and Henley. I think there were hints of a baryon/nucleon resonance in the early 50's. I guess the question is when the resonance was recognized as \Delta, and when it was realized that fractional charges were involved.
Here's my contribution:
M. Gell-Mann, The Eightfold Way: A Theory of Strong Interaction Symmetry, March 15, 1961
http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0113&numPages=52&fp=N
Murray Gell-Mann, Symmetries of Baryons and Mesons, Phys. Rev. 125, 1067 - 1084 (1962)
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v125/i3/p1067_1?qid=cb679a695b397b47&qseq=25&show=30
Gell-Mann announced the quark in 1963, but was thinking about it earlier.
In 1961 two physicists, Murray Gell-Mann of the United States and Yuval Ne`eman ... due to their fractional charge nature, quarks cannot exist in isolation . . .
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/21st_century_science/lectures/lec16.html
Origin of the word 'quark'
http://www.physik.uni-halle.de/Fachgruppen/Theorie/qft/quark.html
Murray Gell-Mann, physicist, assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon back in 1963. Further details are found in his book The Quark and the Jaguar published in paperback in 1995.
The Quark and the Jaguar
From Page 180:
In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark," as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau" words in "Through the Looking Glass". From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark," in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805072535/?tag=pfamazon01-20
Phys. Rev. Lett. 17, 789 - 793 (1966)
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v17/p789
Production of the Nucleon Isobars 1236, 1410, 1518, and 1688 MeV in Proton-Proton Collisions at 2.85, 4.55, 6.06, and 7.88 GeV/c
I. M. Blair and A. E. Taylor
Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, England
W. S. Chapman, P. I. P. Kalmus, J. Litt *, M. C. Miller, D. B. Scott, and H. J. Sherman
Queen Mary College, London, England
A. Astbury and T. G. Walker
Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, Chilton, Berkshire, England
Received 11 August 1966; revised 14 September 1966
Momentum spectra of protons scattered inelastically in proton-proton collisions were obtained in an external beam at Nimrod using incident proton momenta of 2.85, 4.55, 6.06, and 7.88 GeV/c and various scattering angles in the range 22 to 144 mrad. There is evidence for the production of the 1410 MeV isobar at small angles. The well-known isobars of mass values 1236, 1518, and 1688 MeV are also seen. The differential cross sections are presented for the production of these isobars. They are analyzed in terms of the usual variables s and t. Fits to the observed momentum spectra indicate for the N*(1410) a mass of 1410 ± 15 MeV and a width of 125 ± 20 MeV
See also -
M. Gell-Mann, Phys. Lett. 8, 214 (1964); G. Zweig, CERN report No. 8182 TH 401 (1964).
http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/gellmann.html
Higher Symmetry Schemes for Strong Interactions
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2415018
L. Van Hove
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 288, No. 1413 (Oct. 26, 1965), pp. 156-160
See - A study of the fractional charge content of the cosmic radiation
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t4h987t56428603n/
Update: Delta: the first pion nucleon resonance - its discovery and applications; Nagle, D.; October 26, 1999; LALP--84-27; ACC0011
http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/documents/fullText/ACC0011.pdf