WOMEN IN HISTORY - RACHEL CARSON

Marine biologist, science writer, and environmentalist

DATE OF BIRTH

May 27, 1907

PLACE OF BIRTH

Springdale, Pennsylvania

DATE OF DEATH

April 14, 1964

PLACE OF DEATH

Her home in Silver Spring, MD

FAMILY BACKGROUND

The youngest of three children, Rachel Carson had a rugged upbringing in a simple farmhouse outside the western Pennsylvania river town of Springdale. She credited her mother with introducing her to the world of nature that became her lifelong passion.

EDUCATION

1925- entered Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College)
1929- graduated with honors, earning a scholarship to continue her studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
1932- M.A. in Zoology from John Hopkins University.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

After completing her education, Carson joined the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries as the writer of a radio show entitled "Romance Under the Waters," in which she was able to explore life under the seas and bring it to listeners. In 1936, after being the first woman to take and pass the civil service test, the Bureau of Fisheries hired her as a full-time junior biologist, and over the next 15 years, she rose in the ranks until she was the chief editor of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During the 1940s, Carson began to write books on her observations of life under the sea, a world as yet unknown to the majority of people. She resigned from her government position in 1952 in order to devote all her time to writing. The idea for her most famous book, Silent Spring, emerged, and she began writing it in 1957. It was published in 1962, and influenced President Kennedy, who had read it, to call for testing of the chemicals mentioned in the book. Carson has been called the mother of the modern environmental movement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • 1941-Under the Sea Wind
  • 1943-Food From the Sea: Fish and Shellfish of New England
  • 1944-Food From the Sea: Fish and Shellfish of the South Atlantic
  • 1951-The Sea Around Us
  • 1955-The Edge of the Sea
  • 1962-Silent Spring
  • 1965-The Sense of Wonder (posthumous)

WEBSITES

QUOTE

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility."  ~ Rachel Carson