MNPS Monthly Program: Rachel Carson’s Wonder, Wisdom, and Local Legacy by Rebecca Henson

Speaker: Rebecca Henson, Spring Song Museum

Rachel Carson (1907‒1964) was a world-renowned writer and trained biologist and is considered by many as the mother of the modern environmental movement. She lived her adult life in Maryland, first as a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and then moving to Montgomery County for closer proximity to her civil service work in College Park and Washington, DC. This talk will provide an overview of Carson's life and written works, discussing her courage, ecological philosophy, and clear-eyed wonder in the natural world around us, including the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River, Rock Creek Park, and the Chesapeake Bay. It will also explore why Carson wrote her final book, Silent Spring, how it succeeded in shifting public perception about the environment, and where she had hoped her career would go next. Rebecca will briefly share the plans for the creation of the Springsong Museum in Silver Spring, a vibrant community museum celebrating Rachel Carson, a place where visitors of all ages will connect to the natural world through her work and example.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:  Rebecca Henson founded Springsong Museum in 2021 with the mission of creating a museum that connects community and nature through the wonder and wisdom of Rachel Carson and to bring new life to a previously vacant historic industrial building and site in Silver Spring. Before Springsong, Rebecca worked at Nature Forward's Woodend Sanctuary helping to run the nature bookshop, consulted for the nonprofit Ceres, and led environmental screening and advocacy at Calvert Investments for 9 years. A Maryland Master Naturalist, she is a current board member of Neighbors of the Northwest Branch, the watershed organization stewarding a major tributary of the Anacostia River. She enjoys serving as a judge for Maryland History Day. Rebecca has a BA in History from Vanderbilt University and an MA from the University of Bath (UK) in Politics, Policy, and Society focused on comparative environmental policy and was named a 2026-2027 Beinecke Research Fellow at Yale University for her work with the Rachel Carson Papers. She believes deeply in leaning in to wherever it is one lives.

This meeting is hybrid. We ask that you register for your preferred option; after registering, you will get Zoom login information and in person location information.

Co-sponsor: The University of Maryland Extension with host Lisa Kuder

Physical location: Central Maryland Research and Education Center (CMREC)
4240 Folly Quarter Road
Ellicott City, MD 21042
Directions: Enter the building at the front door under the portico. (The door next to the parking lot will be locked.)

The program is free and open to the public.

YOU MUST REGISTER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK

Zoom opens at 7:00PM for pre-program board update and member Q&A. Presentations begin at 7:30PM and generally run until 8:45PM. 

We can accommodate the first 300 people who enter the Zoom meeting at the meeting time. After you register, you will receive a registration confirmation email with a link to the Zoom meeting, as well as the in person location information.

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