Photograph of Rachel Carson testifying before Congress, 1963

Uknown Photographer | from Multimedia Library Collection:
Archival Gems

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This congressional hearing with Rachel Carson took place on June 4, 1963. (Unknown photographer. © 1963 ddp images.)

This image appears in: Stoll, Mark. “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, A Book that Changed the World.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2012, no. 1. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/3517.

Silent Spring prompted Congressional hearings. On 4 April 1963, the day after a CBS documentary on the book aired, Connecticut senator Abraham Ribicoff announced hearings on pollution, including federal regulation of pesticides. Hearings started on 16 May, serendipitously one day after PSAC released its report. On 4 June, Carson testified. Echoing Abraham Lincoln’s famous greeting of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ribicoff welcomed her with the words, “You are the lady who started all this.”

— Mark Stoll

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