Since 1976, Robert Peck has been a crucial part of the Academy, not only chronicling the work of our scientists and collections for the benefit of the public, but also accompanying research expeditions across the globe to assist in specimen collection and to document their scientific discoveries.

Peck, senior fellow and artifacts curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences, has his fingerprints all over the world of natural history. He travelled widely on behalf of the Academy, visiting such locations as Nepal, Ecuador, Venezuela, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Siberia, Guyana, Russia and Mongolia. In Philadelphia, Peck helped care for, research, interpret and present the Academy’s historically important collections for decades. He has also written six books — including “A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science” (co-authored with Patricia Stroud), the first complete history of the Academy — as well as numerous essays and book chapters, ranging across many natural history topics. He has been a regular contributor to Natural History, Antiques and The Explorers Journal, and he serves on the editorial advisory board of Archives of Natural History.

Peck’s career is decorated with prestigious awards. Peck was awarded the Richard Hopper Day Medal by the Academy for his work in interpreting natural history for the public; Philadelphia’s Wyck-Strickland Award for outstanding contributions to the cultural life of Philadelphia; the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for environmental writing; and the Founders Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History, an international organization based in the U.K., for his extensive publications in that field. On his retirement in 2025, he was awarded the Academy’s Gold Medal for Distinction in Natural History Art, an honor reserve for for whose artistic endeavors and life’s work have contributed to mankind’s better understanding and appreciation of living things. 

Additionally, the American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest learned society in the United States founded by Benjamin Franklin, has recently elected Peck into their highly selective membership. 

Although Peck retired from the Academy of Natural Sciences in 2025, he remains one of its greatest advocates and storytellers. Once, on an expedition to the mountainous slopes of Ecuador, he and a team of Academy scientists narrowly escaped death when their birding expedition was suspected of being an illegal gold prospecting operation and targeted for attack and termination.  

When asked whether he was scared for his life, he politely laughs. “No, not until much later,” he says. “At the time, I felt I needed to survive because someone had to tell the story.”