Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History
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| World of Roger Tory Peterson |
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Born in Jamestown, New York, to working-class immigrant parents, Roger was a self-made man who made a successful livelihood by single-mindedly following his guiding passion for birds. In books, articles, lectures, films, and, above all, in his revolutionary field guides, he showed countless readers and listeners how to see and observe nature. His impact lives on in the modern-day proliferation of field guides, nature books, and nature education programs. It lives on in the popularity of bird watching as a recreational pastime. It lives on, too, in the environmental protection laws that stem in part from his advocacy and education work. For Roger, passion, joy, and commitment all flowed from the same source, from the world of wings he first discovered in the woods and fields of Jamestown. Roger well knew the value of education—he always remembered how his seventh-grade teacher, Blanche Hornbeck, helped introduce him to the wider world of nature through the Junior Audubon Club she founded. As an adult, Roger lectured ceaselessly for the National Audubon Society and other organizations, produced educational pamphlets that reached millions of schoolchildren, and wrote articles and books that inspired countless readers. But his greatest contribution to a more widespread public understanding of the natural world lies in his development of practical, user-friendly guidebooks. His A Field Guide to the Birds, published in 1934, introduced simple, reliable identification techniques that can be used by anyone. That first, wildly successful guide led to others. Roger wrote and illustrated some, and edited many more. The Peterson Field Guide Series now numbers over fifty titles that describe practically all readily observable facets of nature, from fishes to mushrooms to clouds and the stars above. “In this century,” wrote the ecologist Paul Ehrlich, “no one has done more to promote an interest in living creatures than Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide.” |
