Peter E. Palmquist (September 23, 1936 - January 13, 2003) was an autodidact photography historian and independent researcher/writer. Biography Palmquist was born into the working-class family of Carl Eric Palmquist and Blanche Lucille Palmquist in Oakland and lived as an adult in the logging community of Arcata, near the Oregon border. As a twelve-year-old, he taught himself photography. He began his career as an Army photographer during his military service stationed in Paris, where he worked for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) for which he photographed many heads of state. In addition he made portraits of many famous stage and screen actors. During his military service in Europe, Palmquist married Sally Forward, then returned to California in 1959, when his enlistment ended. Palmquist worked briefly as a photographer for the state government of California from 1959-1961, then took a job as the staff photographer for Humboldt State University and enrolled for undergraduate study. He graduated in 1965 with a B.A. in Art, but took no formal education in photography history. Researcher He became interested in historic photographs in 1971 when he was given a set of old photographs of California by an antique store owner in McKinleyville, then continued to collect photographs, concentrating on the American West and California, with a special interest in Humboldt County, where he lived most of his life, and professional women photographers. Before long he started to write books and articles about his finds. In 1983 Palmquist published his own book Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West accompanied by an exhibition that traveled to museums in Fort Worth, St. Louis and Boston. The show, with its inclusion of images of gardens, cityscapes and Spanish mission churches, prompted a reassessment of Watkins as more than a landscape photographer, and demonstrated Palmquist's capabilities as a researcher. His methodology was unusual in commencing from the photographic imagery rather than the written document, a practice compatible with his preference for obscure photographers he could afford to collect. "Part of the collecting incentive was that photographs were generally cheap. A fine daguerreotype went for less than ten dollars, and many could be had for under three. Portrait photographs were seldom sold for more than fifty cents, and it was not uncommon to see large numbers of them as cheap as ten cents apiece. Tintypes were commonly fifty cents, while the lavish, Victorian-era, family albums were usually