sort, and read the most historically significant collection of Revolutionary War documents ever to come into the possession of an American library, about which Life did an exclusive story. Peckham authored informative histories of the colonial wars and the American Revolutionary War that wielded much scholarly influence. His works also included histories of the state of Indiana and the University of Michigan. Peckham was a founder and contributor to American Heritage and president of the American Association for State and Local History. Peckham left the University of Michigan in 1945 and became the director of Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau and Secretary of the Indiana Historical Society the same year, where he subsequently began establishing professional standards for historical society work. During his eight years in Indiana Peckham acquired a great appreciation and love for the state and wrote two books on the history of that state. He was in charge of both the library's various educational programs and its publications. While at Indiana he contributed to its collection of manuscripts, rare books, and historical maps of the original Northwest Territory. Peckham returned to Ann Arbor in 1953, shortly after the death of former director Randolph Adams, and was formally appointed Director of Clements Library, where he began greatly expanding the library's colonial and revolutionary collections, personally contributing many important manuscripts for the early American and antebellum periods. Peckham later chaired the University Bicentennial Committee and in 1966 was Secretary to the Regents for the President's Selection Committee. Later years By the middle of the 1970s, Peckham and his wife decided for health reasons to move to a warmer climate in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where they lived a more relaxed lifestyle. Peckham was given an honorary doctorate degree by Olivet College in 1976. He continued his writing, turning out occasional historical articles. He also taught and attended a few classes at the local community college, and took up playing the bassoon in the community orchestra. He also tried his hand at writing a novel. In Peckham's 1974 work, The Toll of Independence, he painstakingly counted American military wartime casualties in the Revolutionary War and added them to the number of American soldiers who died while prisoners of war in British captivity. Peckham's investigation revealed that the number of deaths was much greater than previously assumed, which now totaled about 25,000 American deaths, a significant loss for a population that