Martha Peterson

Martha Dannerbeck Peterson (1940-) is a researcher of Islamic architecture, particularly windows, focusing on buildings from the mid-14th century to the mid-16th century. Peterson lived in Quetta and Karachi, Pakistan, as an exchange student at the age of 17. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, and in 1982 she completed her Master’s degree thesis focusing on representations of colored glass windows in Persian miniature paintings. Starting in 1983, Peterson traveled to various research locations, including Anatolia, Istanbul, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. She married Samuel R. Peterson in 1989, who encouraged and helped facilitate her research.

In 2025, Martha donated her archive to AKDC. The archive contains materials related to her research on Islamic plaster and glass windows (1986 - 2002) , including field notes, photocopies of research notebooks and relevant publications, sketches of windows, citations, and occasional photographs or postcards. The photographs are organized by the construction date of the associated buildings, which are generally located in Syria, Egypt, or Turkey.