The Archive maintains a repository of published and unpublished written and visual material relating to the artist's life, work, projects, travels, exhibitions, and relations with his cohort. Beard's first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery, New York City, in 1975. Landmark museum exhibitions have been held at the International Center of Photography, New York City, in 1977, and the Centre national de la photographie, Paris, in 1997. Gallery exhibitions followed in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna. Beard's work is included in private collections throughout the world. In 2017, Beard was sued by actor David Spade, who purchased one of his works. Spade tried to resell a Peter Beard photograph that he had purchased from dealer Peter Tunney, but the unsigned work could not be authenticated. Beard was one of three sons born to Roseanne Hoar Beard and Anson McCook Beard, Jr. A great-grandfather, Canadian-born James Jerome Hill, was founder of the Great Northern Railway in the United States in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Having made his fortune in the railroad business, James Jerome Hill was a great patron of the arts. All of his heirs were exposed to and owned great collections, presumably having a strong influence on Beard's interests in the arts and beauty. He married three times. His first wife was Mary "Minnie" Olivia Cochran Cushing (later Mrs James J. Coleman Jr.), a society figure, granddaughter of artist Howard Gardiner Cushing, and a former assistant to the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. They married in 1967 in Newport, Rhode Island and divorced three years later. Next he was married to Cheryl Tiegs (formerly married to Stanley John Dragoti), the fashion model, from 1981 to 1984. His last wife was Nejma Khanum, a daughter of a judge of the Supreme Court of Kenya, whom he married in Montauk in 1986. The couple had one child, a daughter, Zara (born 1988), for whom his book, "Zara's Tales," was written. In 1996, he was charged by a rhinocerous and gored in the right leg. After arriving at the hospital without a pulse, he was revived, and survived. Beard befriended and in some cases collaborated with many artists, including Andy Warhol, Andrew Wyeth, Francis Bacon, Karen Blixen, Truman Capote, Richard Lindner, and Salvador Dalí. He also photographed many other well-known people.