Description
Robert McCracken Peck is a naturalist, writer and historian with a special interest in the intersection of science, history, and art. As Senior Fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (now part of Drexel University), he has traveled extensively in South America, Africa and Asia to document scientific research expeditions on behalf of the Academy. He has lectured and published widely on subjects dealing with the history of science, the history of exploration, and the history of art, and guest-curated art and science exhibitions throughout the United States. With degrees in art history and history from Princeton University and the University of Delaware, Peck has held fellowships at The Yale Center for British Art (1997) and Houghton Library, Harvard University (1995 and 2011). He has been a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome (2013, 2017, and 2023). In 1989 a new species of South American frog (one of three new species he discovered in Ecuador) was named in his honor.
Peck has written for a wide range of popular and scholarly publications, including Audubon, Natural History, National Wildlife, Antiques, Nature, and The New York Times. His most recent books include: Travels on the Edge: A Naturalist’s Notes from the Back of Beyond (2026), The Natural History of Edward Lear (2016 and 2021), North By Degree: New Perspectives on Arctic Exploration, co-edited with Susan A. Kaplan (2013), and A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, co-authored with Patricia T. Stroud (2012).
