|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Rachel Carson
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
| |
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Rachel Louise Carson
RACHEL CARSON
Awarded by
President Jimmy Carter
June 9, 1980
Never silent herself in the face of destructive trends, Rachel Carson fed a spring of awareness across America and beyond. A biologist with a gentle, clear voice, she welcomed her audiences to her love of the sea, while with an equally clear determined voice, she warned Americans of the dangers human beings themselves pose for their own environment. Always concerned, always eloquent, she created a tide of environmental consciousness that has not ebbed.
Biography
Born: May 27, 1907
Birthplace: Springdale, PA
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. 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. 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.
Died: April 14, 1964
Place of Death: Her home in Silver Spring, MD
Additional Resources: 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) 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
Medal History
