Legacy
People
Jeanne Vance Davis
Jeanne was Rachel Carson’s executive assistant and secretary who arranged all her literary works after her death. She was also featured in the 1994 documentary, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, by Neil Goodwin.
Shirley Ann Briggs
Shirley Briggs was a very close friend and advocate of Rachel Carson and her work. After Carson’s death, she became the executive director of the Rachel Carson Council working with the issues related to environmental pollution.
Stewart L. Udall
The Secretary of the Interior for President Kennedy and a firm believer in clean air, clean water, and natural beauty acts much like Carson was. He befriended Carson and in his governmental position he and his employees helped prove her scientific findings and make them known and popular.
Bob Hines
Bob met Rachel while working as an artist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They traveled from Maine to the Florida Keys together, Carson the scientist and Hines drawing everything thing she found. He also did the illustrations for her third book The Edge of the Sea upon request.
Kat herine "Kay" Louise Howe Roberts
Kay Roberts was a colleague of Rachel’s at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service where she illustrated many of Carson’s pamphlets like “Conservation in Action”. Kay created the illustrations for some of her books and contributed to the 1997 biography of Carson by Linda Lear.
John F. Kennedy
After reading Silent Spring, President Kennedy called for testing to be performed on the main chemicals and pesticides in use at the time.
Places
Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge
A conversation dedicated to preserving Maine’s salt marshes and estuaries for migratory birds. It was created in 1966 in Wells, Maine and was named after Carson in 1969.
Rachel Carson Homestead
The birthplace and childhood home of Rachel Carson in Springdale, Pennsylvania that sat on about 65 acres of land near the Allegheny River. Today, it is preserved by the Rachel Carson Homestead Association.
Schools
There are also many schools named after Rachel Carson: Rachel Carson Institute, Carson Middle School, Rachel Carson High School for Coastal Studies, and multiple Rachel Carson Elementary Schools.
Rachel Carson Bridge
Even a bridge, in Pittsburgh, PA, has been named after this remarkable woman!
Rachel Carson Center
This is a center in Munich dedicated to Rachel Carson.
Rachel Carson Council
"The Council seeks to inform and advise the public about the effects of pesticides that threaten the health, welfare, and survival of living organisms and biological systems. The Council promotes alternative, environmentally benign pest management strategies to encourage healthier, sustainable living.
"Formerly the Rachel Carson Trust for the Living Environment, the Rachel Carson Council is a clearinghouse and library with information at both scientific and layperson levels on pesticide-related issues, which provides answers to the public, produces various publications clarifying pesticide dangers, brings alternative pest controls to the public's attention, and presents conferences and workshops for the public and the scientific community.
"We have answered tough questions about pesticide effects and alternative pest-control methods since 1965." (Rachel Carson Council Mission Statement)
Movement
The Environmental Protection Movement
Rachel Carson was one of the catalysts who began this movement hightlighting the need to address environmental issues.