and third wives contributed to the research and organization of his guides. Career Peterson's first work on birds was an article "Notes from field and study" in the magazine Bird-Lore, where he recorded anecdotally two sight records from 1925, a Carolina wren and a titmouse. In 1934 he published his seminal Guide to the Birds, the first modern field guide. It sold out its first printing of 2‚000 copies in one week, and went through six editions. One of the inspirations for his field guide was the diagram of ducks that Ernest Thompson Seton made in Two Little Savages (1903). 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: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds (Fireside. 1988), said of 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. Peterson was awarded the Linnaean Society of New York's Eisenmann Medal in 1986, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands. In 1977, he was honored by selection by the two Swedish District lodges of the Vasa Order of America to be Swedish-American of the Year. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received honorary doctorates from numerous American universities. He died in 1996 at his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut. His remains were cremated and his ashes were spread on and round Great Island near Old Lyme, and under grave memorials in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme, and in the Pine Hill Cemetery in Falconer, New York. The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York is named in his honor. In 2000, the American Birding Association established the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Promoting the Cause of Birding. A biography, Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Elizabeth Rosenthal, was published in 2008, the centenary of Peterson's birth. See also Ludlow Griscom Award Publications A Field