Peter E. Palmquist

Peter Eric Palmquist (September 23, 1936 – January 13, 2003) was an autodidact photography historian and independent researcher/writer before the 1950.

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 to 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, Many of them had their own photographic studios around the turn of the 20th century, and were previously unknown and unresearched, like Elizabeth Fleischmann, the first x-ray photographer in California who lost her life to radiation poisoning. "...acquainted with A. W. Ericson's photographs I decided that it was time to write a book, Fine California Views: The Photographs of A. W. Ericson (1975), that was my first attempt at narrative writing. Although the book was well received, my naïveté and lack of writing prowess was painfully evident." He was the founding editor of The Daguerreian Annual; past president of the National Stereoscopic Association; and founder and curator of the Women in Photography International Archive. He served as a consultant and researcher on such projects as Ken Burns' television documentary, The West.

Legacy The Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund for Historical Photographic Research was founded by his partner Pam Mendelsohn. In 2005 the Fund commenced in providing financial support to independent researchers who are studying either photographers of the American West before 1900, or women photographers past and present.

Palmquist's archive of more than 150,000 photographs and research documents is housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut where it forms a cornerstone of its Western Americana Collection.