Robert M. Peck, Chair Person

Historian, naturalist, and writer Robert McCracken Peck serves as Curator of Art and Artifacts and the Editor of Scientific Publications at The Academy of Natural Sciences, where he has been a Fellow since 1983. He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a Master of Arts degree from the Winterthur Program in American Cultural History, the University of Delaware.

Widely published, Mr. Peck is the author of Land of the Eagle: A Natural History of North America, the companion volume to the eightpart BBC/PBS television series of the same title. It was named one of the most notable natural history/science books of the year by The New York Times Book Review. A recipient of fellowships from the Houghton Library, Harvard University and the Yale Center for British Art, Mr. Peck has served as a consultant to the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Liverpool Museum and the BBC In 1988 a new species of South American frog, one of three he discovered in the upper Amazon basin in Ecuador, was named in his honor.

A life-long Philadelphian, and a member of the American Philosophical Society whose many publications have been honored by the Garden Club of America, the Society for the History of Natural History, and the Explorers Club, he lives in a 200 year old greenhouse on the edge of the Wissahickon. He and his wife, Susan, have three children.