Rachel Carson

This 1965 bronze sculpture of Rachel Carson (1907 - 1964) by Una Hanbury sits in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

"As a government scientist, Rachel Carson became concerned about the ecological impact of pesti­cides, especially DDT, and in 1962 she published the groundbreaking Silent Spring. Finely written and passionately reasoned, Silent Spring exploded into national consciousness and can be said to have started the modern environmental movement. Although some of its conclusions are still controversial today, the book was a warning that an active citizenry had to be skeptical of large institutions, an attitude that became a dominant theme of the 19605 and 1970s. Sculptor Una Hanbury, who met Carson shortly before her death, was struck by her tremendous vitality and incorporated that quality into her portrait." National Portrait Gallery

The view from behind the hollow sculpture captures a ghostly image of the great environmentalist.