Biographical Note
Charles B. Peterson III was born in 1936 in Lancaster, PA and died in 2021. From a young age and for the entirety of his life, Peterson expressed a deep passion for geography. As a young man, he began collecting road maps (many featured in this collection) as a hobby. He received a B.A. in Russian at Northwestern University, going on to earn M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington (Seattle) in historical geography. From 1962-1974, he worked as a geographic analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. Following his tenure at the Agency, Peterson attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. to recieve his third advanced degree, in library science. He then began his prolific career as a senior map cataloger in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, where he served for 44 years (1974-2019). He is responsible for cataloging countless maps, spanning vast time periods, langauges, and subjects. Throughout his storied career, he continued to collect road maps for his personal collection. He was in regular correspondence with petroleum companies, requesting their yearly map publications from across the United States. His love for world travel can also be glimpsed through the collection: many of the non-U.S. country maps were acquired by Peterson while on trips to those countries. Peterson concluded a 55 year career in federal service in 2019, by which time he had donated his road map collection to the Library of Congress so that it could be of use to the international community of patrons.