Inspiration to Action: Bringing Rachel Carson's Legacy to Life with Rebecca Henson and Julie Farkas
This week, Tricia and Doro warmly welcome two remarkable women, Rebecca Henson and Julie Farkas, the forces driving the creation of the Springsong Museum. This conversation dives into the behind-the-scenes work leading up to the birth of this transformative museum created in honor of Rachel Carson, an environmentalist known for her groundbreaking book "Silent Spring" and for her unwavering advocacy for finding wonder in the natural world.
Rebecca, a Maryland Master Naturalist and independent climate researcher, was inspired by Rachel Carson’s work and throughout their discussion, Rebecca and Julie illuminate Carson's meticulous research and highlight the challenges of her personal life. They talk about their hopes for the museum, emphasizing a broader vision of infusing their commitment to environmental protection with the desire to serve as a place for community empowerment and profound connection with the natural world. This episode is a testament to the enduring strength of environmental stewardship, inspiring listeners to embrace wonder and healing within their own connection with nature.
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SpringSong Museum Website: http://springsongmuseum.org
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Quotes:
“The Springsong Museum is in this shockingly beautiful nature near the highway that most people never see. It’s this dichotomy that makes the project so exciting.” - Julie Farkas
“At the Springsong Museum, we're hoping to bring a lot of Rachel Carson’s philosophy around wonder and how we nurture that natural wonder into a physical form.” - Rebecca Henson
“We hope to share the story of Rachel Carson’s perseverance, wonder, strength, and resourcefulness through the Springsong Museum.” - Rebecca Henson
Show Notes:
REBECCA HENSON: So the museum project started almost three years ago. It came just after the first real year of Covid. Our two boys had been at home with us for over a year at that point, and I was driving by the future museum site and looked over as I do any time I drive by and just wondered, what could that be? Or, you know, couldn't we make something special and beautiful out of this space? This building had been sitting empty for six decades, and I knew that Rachel Carson lived just around the corner from where that building is. She lived in my neighborhood in Woodmoor in Silver Spring. She lived here and wrote The Sea Around Us, for which she won the National Book Award. And then after living in Woodmoor, she moved to a neighborhood just across an upstream, about two miles from where the building is. And that is where she wrote Silent Spring. It's perfectly nestled in between these neighborhoods where Carson lived, where she wrote her work at night and on the weekends while she had a day job where she cared for an extended family that included her mom and nieces and adopted grandnephew. It was also where she drew such inspiration from the Trees and the birds and the beautiful Northwest Branch of the Anacostia here.
JULIE FARKAS: Yeah, Rebecca and I started collaborating almost two years ago now, which is incredible. It's been such a wonderful journey. Rebecca used to work at the Calvert Group, where my husband used to work, and she thought, as she was launching this museum idea, that this would be something we might be interested in because of our commitment to organics and what that means for the earth and the ecosystem and the people and the animals. So we had a zoom call with her because, again, this was during high Covid days, and I was like, I'd love to see the museum site and let's meet outside. And I sat and listened to Rebecca for about an hour and a half, and I was just every additional thing she said was so thoughtful, so important. And I essentially said, I would love to help you make this museum a reality if you'll have me. And so I've been working with her ever since and just doing what I can, given my background to help. I'm not an environmental policy analyst. I'm someone who's very committed to the environment, and I've got a background in strategic partnerships and fundraising and other things, and just was hoping that there were some skills that I brought that complemented the incredible depth of knowledge and skills that Rebecca has. And that's part of what made our partnership, I think, so fruitful and fun.
REBECCA HENSON: So Rachel Carson, she was born in 1907 just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she grew up outdoors a lot. Her two older siblings were quite older, so it was really Rachel and her mom that spent a lot of time together once Rachel was born, and the mother was a believer and follower of the nature study movement. Around the turn of the century, there was a wonderful movement that really encouraged parents and teachers to get kids outdoors. So the founder of the nature study idea coined the term field trip. The best classroom was the outdoors in the minds of the nature study movement believers. And so Maria Carson and Rachel's mom was a believer in this. And so any time she could, Rachel was outdoors and learning from the various cycles and, you know, seeing the creatures at different times of the year and then observing them and thinking about them and then writing about them and drawing. So we've seen some adorable drawings of Rachel's from when she was a little girl. We have a wonderful partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and they have many of her books from when she was a child. And so you can see some of her drawings, but also her practicing her name in cursive in the margins. And she was very much already, you know, at a very young age, seeing that she was part of that natural world. And she considered she said, the wild creatures were her friends. Rachel was. Having her stories published in the Saint Nicholas Magazine at age 11 and 12 and winning awards. But Carson's mom also put a lot of attention and effort into making sure that Rachel could have a career. And ever since she moved here for graduate school, she was a resident of Maryland until she passed away at age 56.
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