Maine Women in History Rediscovering Their Lives and Legacies

Rachel Carson, writer, scientist, and ecologist, was born May 27, 1907, and grew up in the rural river town of Springdale, Pa. Her mother bequeathed to her a lifelong love of nature and the living world that Rachel expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology.

Carson graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her master’s in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

She was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression and supplemented her income writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She began a 15-year career in the federal service as a scientist and editor in 1936 and rose to become editor-in-chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles, but in her free time turned her government research into lyric prose, first as an article “Undersea” (1937, for the Atlantic Monthly), and then in a book, “Under the Sea-Wind” (1941). In 1952 she published her prize-winning study of the ocean, “The Sea Around Us,” which was followed by “The Edge of the Sea” in 1955.

These books constituted a biography of the ocean and made Carson famous as a naturalist and science writer. Carson resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to her writing.

She wrote several other articles designed to teach people about the wonder and beauty of the living world, including “Help Your Child to Wonder,” (1956) and “Our Ever-Changing Shore” (1957), and planned another book on the ecology of life. Embedded within all of Carson’s writing was the view that humans were but one part of nature distinguished primarily by their power to alter it, in some cases irreversibly.

Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long-term effects of misusing pesticides. In “Silent Spring” (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.

Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment.

She died April 14, 1964, in Silver Spring, Md., after a long battle against breast cancer. Her witness for the beauty and integrity of life continues to inspire new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures.

Biographical information by Carson biographer (c) Linda Lear, 1998, author of “Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature” (1997) and www.rachelcarson.org.

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1966 in cooperation with the state of Maine to protect valuable salt marshes and estuaries for migratory birds. Scattered along 50 miles of coastline in York and Cumberland counties, the refuge consists of 10 divisions between Kittery and Cape Elizabeth. It will contain approximately 9,125 acres when land acquisition is completed. The proximity of the refuge to the coast and its location between the eastern deciduous forest and the boreal forest creates a composition of plants and animals not found elsewhere in Maine. Major habitat types present on the refuge include forested upland, barrier beach/dune, coastal meadows, tidal salt marsh, and the distinctive rocky coast.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web site at www.fws.gov/northeast/rachelcarson/

Click It For more information visit www.rachelcarson.org

www.fws.gov/northeast/rachelcarson/

Maine’s history is full of female pioneers who blazed a path for the women of today. The Bangor Daily News, in cooperation with the Maine Historical Society’s online museum Maine Memory Network, the Maine FolkLife Center and others, will highlight a different woman each day throughout March. If you are just joining us for this series, you may find the installments you have missed at www.bangordailynews.com. Photo courtesy of the Lear/Carson Collection, Connecticut College.