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Roger Tory Peterson (August 28, 1908 – July 28, 1996), was an American naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator, and held to be one of the founding inspirations for the 20th century environmental movement.

Biography

Roger Tory Peterson Institute sign.

Roger Tory Peterson Institute.

Peterson was born in Jamestown, New York. After graduating from high school‚ Peterson moved to New York City‚ where he attended the Art Students League (1927-1928) and the National Academy of Design (1929-1931). He then taught science and art at the Rivers School in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1934 he published his seminal Guide to the Birds, the first modern field guide, which sold out its first printing of 2‚000 copies in one week, and subsequently went through 5 editions. He co-wrote Wild America with James Fisher, and edited or wrote many of the volumes in the Peterson Field Guide series on topics ranging from rocks and minerals to beetles to reptiles. He developed the Peterson Identification System, and is known for the clarity of both his illustrations of field guides and his delineation of relevant field marks.

Paul R. Ehrlich, in The Birder's Handbook, said this about Peterson:

In this century, no one has done more to promote an interest in living creatures than Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide^[1].

Peterson received every major American award for natural science, ornithology, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary medals, diplomas, and citations from America and elewhere, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands. He died in 1996 at his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York is named in his honor.

Publications

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• Peterson, Roger, Guy Mountfort, and P.A.D. Hollom (1954), A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, Collins.
  • 1965 edition: revised and enlarged in collaboration with I.J. Ferguson-Lees and D.I.M. Wallace
  • 1971 impression: ISBN 0 00 212020 8
  • 2004 edition: ISBN 978-0007192342
• Peterson, Roger & Fisher, James: The World of Birds (1964)
• Peterson, R.T. and E. Chaliff (1973), A Field Guide to Mexican Birds, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Massachusetts.
• Eric Hosking's Birds - Fifty Years of Photographing Wildlife Eric Hosking with Kevin MacDonnell, Pelham Books (1979) ISBN 0 7207 1163 0 (Foreword; credited as "Tory Peterson")

References

1. ^ Paul R. Ehrlich, ecologist The Birder's Handbook‚ 1988

• Devlin, John C. and Grace Naismith (1977), The World of Roger Tory Peterson - An Authorised Biography, New York Times Books ISBN 0-8129-0694-2
• Mountfort, G (1996). "Obituary: Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996)". British Birds 89: 544–545. ISSN 0007-0335.  
• Carlson, Douglas (2007), Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography, The University of Texas Press ISBN 978-0-292-71680-3.
• Rosenthal, Elizabeth J. (2008), Birdwatcher: the Life of Roger Tory Peterson, The Lyons Press ISBN 978-1599212944.