For fifty years Preston Cook has devoted his time to all things American eagle. He has amassed and meticulously organized a collection of more than twenty-five thousand eagle objects — from kitsch to fine art, from the everyday to the rare — that reflect American life from the American Revolution to the present.

Cook has served on several government commissions and some twenty boards of directors, including for the American Bald Eagle Foundation, the Oceanic Society, and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. He is a member of the Audubon Society, the National Eagle Center, and the Sons of the American Revolution, and is a life member of the American Bald Eagle Foundation, the American Legion, the International Federation of Fly Fishers, and Trout Unlimited.

Cook’s collection has been donated to the nonprofit National Eagle Center. Proceeds from the sales of his book, American Eagle: A Visual History of Our National Emblem, will be donated to the National Eagle Center to help fund the museum that will house the collection. Read Preston’s Preface from the book.

A retired real estate investor, Cook lives with his wife in Wabasha, Minnesota, on the banks of the Mississippi River, a major flyway for the bald eagle.

Preston Cook at Eagles Over the Water: A Preview of the National Eagle Center’s Collection of Eagles in American Culture, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, June - October 2018. Photographs by Blake Darst.