The mission of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History is to honor and continue the work of Roger Tory Peterson to foster understanding, appreciation and protection of the natural world.

(Approved by the Board of Trustees March 15, 2012)

Our Motto: Learn it, love it, protect it!

Our Vision

To accomplish its mission, RTPI will reach diverse audiences,

• by providing  stimulating  programs and exhibits for adults and children in its award-winning facility;
• by offering live and distance learning classes both at its local headquarters and through institutions of higher learning;
• by organizing,  preserving and making broadly available the works and methods of Dr. Peterson;
• by creating and disseminating  materials and methods to assist teachers and other professionals to introduce and explain the natural world to the general public; and
• by collaborating with like-minded partners to create and to support national research, competitions and awards in natural history.

Faithful to its heritage as the repository of the life works of Dr. Peterson, RTPI will create knowledge of and appreciation and responsibility for the natural world in the 21^st Century.

Our Heritage

Roger Tory Peterson was the pre-eminent American naturalist who illustrated and chronicled the natural world to the public in the 20^th century. Over a long career that began with nature study in the seventh grade in Jamestown, New York, he observed, recorded and published for lay audiences the incredible beauty and diversity of plants and animals from North America and around the world.  The publication of his A Field Guide to The Birds in 1934 fostered  a massive and worldwide movement connecting human beings with their natural surroundings. The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History holds and preserves Dr. Peterson’s lifetime work of writings, drawings, paintings, photography, films and artifacts in an award-winning center in Jamestown, NY.