
Rachel Carson
queen of conservation
Rachel Carson was a biologist and writer known for her profound impact on the environmental movement. Her most famous work is Silent Spring, concerning the harmful effects of chemical pesticides.
Fans praised Rachel's ability to write science accessibly; critics tried to discredit her because she was both “a woman” and “a spinster.” In spite of, or perhaps because of its controversy, Silent Spring was a huge success that led to the ban of DDT and the creation of the EPA. Unfortunately, Rachel succumbed to breast cancer before she could see many of the long-term impacts of her work.
Silent Spring | the book that was a boon to US conservation efforts
helping ban DDT | a harmful chemical whose use in the US agriculture industry was having a hugely negative impact on songbird populations
1936 | became junior aquatic biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
1951 | published The Sea Around Us, her first successful book and winner of a National Book Award
1962 | published Silent Spring, inspiring the American environmental movement
born on
May 27, 1907
birth name
Rachel Louise Carson
born in
Springdale, Pennsylvania
citizen of
The United States of America
lived in
Silver Spring, Maryland
daughter of
Maria Frazier {née McLean}
Robert Warden Carson
sister of
Robert + Marian
educated at | studied with
Pennsylvania College for Women {now Chatham University}
~ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | BA in Biology ~
Johns Hopkins University
~ Baltimore, Maryland | MA in Zoology ~
loved studying
marine biology
adopted mother of
Roger Christie
~ her grandnephew ~
advocate for
the conservation of wildlife
in her spare time
visited her cabin on Southport Island, Maine
died on
April 14, 1964
~ in Silver Spring, Maryland ~
image credits
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | public domain
Smithsonian Institution | public domain
collapse bio bits"One of the most interesting and engaging characteristics of island species is their extraordinary tameness—a lack of sophistication in dealings with the human race, which even the bitter teachings of experience do not quickly alter."
The Sea Around Us | 1950
"You do not have to travel to find the sea, for the traces of its ancient stands are everywhere about."
The Sea Around Us | 1950
"No one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry."
National Book Foundation award acceptance speech | 1952
"Science is part of the reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything in our experience."
Rachel Carson accepting non-fiction book award | 1952
"I can remember no time, even in earliest childhood, when I didn't assume I was going to be a writer."
Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature | 1954
"It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself."
The Sea Around Us | january 1960
"Beginnings are apt to be shadowy, and so it is with the beginnings of that great mother of life, the sea."
The Sea Around Us | 1961
"Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song."
Silent Spring | january 1962
"We are rightly appalled by the genetic effects of radiation; how then can we be indifferent to the same effect in chemicals that we disseminate widely in our environment."
Silent Spring | 1962
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."
Silent Spring | 1962
"Most of all, I shall remember the Monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force."
Letter to Dorothy | 1963
"Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the Earth without making it unfit for all life?"
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring {via CBSnews} | 1963
"Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring {via NRDC} | 1963
"We in this generation, must come to terms with nature, and I think we're challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson | april 1963
"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder...he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."
The Sense of Wonder | 1965
for further reading about Rachel Carson:
curated with care by Alix Nunan {july 2014}
Carson and siblings at the beach
Rachel Carson (center) and her siblings Robert and Marian visiting a beach along the Allegheny River, probably in the late 1910s. Growing up on her family's farm in Springdale, PA, young Rachel loved to explore the outdoors. She was also an avid reader and writer.
Rachel Carson Collection
Rachel Carson graduates from PCW
Rachel Carson graduating from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in 1929. Carson had always wanted to be a writer and came to PCW as an English major, but she switched to biology at the urging of professor Mary Scott Skinker. Skinker's mentoring set Carson on a path that would lead her to a master's degree in zoology, a career as a science writer and ultimately, authoring one of the most influential books of the 20th century.
Chatham University
Rachel Carson employee photo for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
After receiving a master's in zoology at John's Hopkins University, Carson began work on a doctorate before her family's financial constraints forced her to abandon her studies and look for work. Initially hired as a part-time writer at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, she was hired full-time as a junior aquatic biologist in 1936. The above photo was taken after the Bureau was incorporated into the Department of the Interior as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in 1940.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
Carson researches marine life in the Florida Keys
Rachel Carson and wildlife artist Robert Hines conduct research for Carson's third book, The Edge of the Sea. At the time this photograph was taken, Carson had already left her job at the Department of the Interior to pursue writing full-time. Hines drew the illustrations for the book.
Rex Gary Schimidt | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | public domain