Trudy Huskamp Peterson

Acting Archivist Trudy Peterson (on stage, third from left) presiding over dedication of NARA's building in College Park, Maryland on May 12, 1994.

Trudy Huskamp Peterson (born January 25, 1945) is the first woman to hold the position of Archivist of the United States. She was the Acting Archivist of the United States from March 25, 1993 to May 29, 1995.

Education Peterson earned her B.S. in English and History from Iowa State University in 1967, an M.A. in U.S. History from the University of Iowa in 1972 and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Iowa in 1975. She gained certification from the Academy of Certified Archivists in 1989.

Career In 1967, Peterson joined the National Archives, becoming assistant archivist in 1987 and Acting Archivist in 1993. She has started her own archival consulting company where she has been a consulting archivist since 2002. Some of her clients include: the Truth Commissions in South Africa and Honduras, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and training Guatemalans working with the newly discovered Police Archives on Standard Archival Techniques. Peterson also worked with wrestler Scott Hall to archive the materials of the NWA Central States in an effort to document the cumulative effects of concussions sustained in cage matches.

Actively involved in the many archival organizations, Peterson served a term as Society of American Archivists President, 1990–1991; on its council, 1984–1987; and on the editorial board of The American Archivist, 1978–1981. Additionally, she was the founding executive director of the Blinken Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary. She served as the director of archives and records management for the United Nations, and the high commissioner for refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. She was also vice-president of the International Council on Archives, 1993–1995, and vice-chair of its Commission on Program Support, 1996–2000. Just three months into her tenure, the agency lost a ruling which stated that they "failed to preserve and protect computer tapes made during the Reagan and Bush administrations.