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Roger Tory Peterson

Submitted by on April 28, 2010 – 10:05 pmOne Comment
Roger Tory Peterson from RTPI

Roger Tory Peterson from RTPI

Here’s is a wonderful video about Roger Tory Peterson’s life and work called “Almost Like Resurrection”.

Roger published the first modern field guide to birds in 1934 and called it simply: A Field Guide To The Birds.

From RTPI’s biography of Roger Tory Peterson:

A conservative contract, foregoing the payment of any royalty on the first 1000 copies, was made because it had numerous drawings and four color plates, which were quite expensive to reproduce in those days. Two thousand copies were printed, to be sold for $2.75 a copy.

In the first week the entire stock of 2,000 copies sold.  Roger received 10 cents per copy of the 2nd 1,000 copies.

Roger Tory Peterson:

I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them.

Thanks Roger!


  • http://www.lowcountrybirder.com David G.

    My grandfather, Norbert Green, a western Pennsylvania farmer and nature lover, gave me my first real bird book (and his pair of Binolux 7×50 binoculars) when I was 12 – it was RTP's 1947 hardcover edition of “A Field Guide to the Birds” – and it is now well-worn and showing its age! I liked it because was small enough to fit into a coat or sweatshirt pocket when I was out in the field, but it was still packed full of useful information for identifying birds.

    His use of both black-and-white and color plates of bird drawings along with identifying field marks was revolutionary in helping us non-biologists figure out “What kind of bird is that?” I just picked up my old copy and saw something that I hadn't really noticed before – on the back side, along the edge, is a ruler so you can gauge the size of the bird you are looking at – who'd have thought of that before?

    Although some of the bird's names have changed (I still call a Kestrel a “Sparrow Hawk”), Peterson's old field guide is still quite useful today, and I still consult it occasionally when I run into some difficulty in identifying a bird. The joy that has come into my life because of my birding experiences has a lot to do with his ability to make birds come alive in print.

    The Lowcountry Birder
    http://www.lowcountrybirder.com