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“Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a Book that Changed the World” was created by Mark Stoll (2020, 2012) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license. This refers only to the text and does not include image rights. Please click on an image to view its individual rights status. Thumbnails of the following images appear on the exhibition landing page:
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German periodicals reported on Silent Spring with an array of frightening headlines (“We are all being slowly poisoned”; “The pollution of nature: Rachel Carson’s battle”; “Poison disrupts the order of nature”; “Poison on God’s gifts”; “Spring is not yet silent: Misuse of pesticides can boomerang”; “More dangerous than radioactivity”; “Do we take small daily doses of poison?”; and “Poison rains from the sky”). Collage created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library.
German periodicals reported on Silent Spring with an array of frightening headlines (“We are all being slowly poisoned”; “The pollution of nature: Rachel Carson’s battle”; “Poison disrupts the order of nature”; “Poison on God’s gifts”; “Spring is not yet silent: Misuse of pesticides can boomerang”; “More dangerous than radioactivity”; “Do we take small daily doses of poison?”; and “Poison rains from the sky”). Collage created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library.
Created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library, YCAL MSS 46 Box 62 f. 1108. Used by permission.
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Tests of hundreds of nuclear weapons in the open air spread radioactive fallout from pole to pole—invisible cancer-causing isotopes that found their way into food and into human bodies. Public alarm was coming to a peak just when Silent Spring came out.
Tests of hundreds of nuclear weapons in the open air spread radioactive fallout from pole to pole—invisible cancer-causing isotopes that found their way into food and into human bodies. Public alarm was coming to a peak just when Silent Spring came out.
Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
John M. Lee, “‘Silent Spring’ is Now Noisy Summer,” New York Times, 22 July 1962, 86.
The great editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin of the Chicago Sun-Times illustrates the gender dimension of the controversy over Carson and Silent Spring. In this 27 October 1963 cartoon he pairs her with Jessica Mitford, author of The American Way of Death, a scathing indictment of the funeral home industry. Men from both industries have been flattened under the platens of the women’s typewriters. Illustration by Bill Mauldin.
The great editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin of the Chicago Sun-Times illustrates the gender dimension of the controversy over Carson and Silent Spring. In this 27 October 1963 cartoon he pairs her with Jessica Mitford, author of The American Way of Death, a scathing indictment of the funeral home industry. Men from both industries have been flattened under the platens of the women’s typewriters. Illustration by Bill Mauldin.
© 1963 Bill Mauldin. Courtesy of Bill Mauldin Estate LLC.
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
TV from the early 1950s. Source: John Atherton via flickr.
TV from the early 1950s. Source: John Atherton via flickr.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
One of the paintings in the exhibit “A Fable for Tomorrow,” Alexis Rockman’s powerful Manifest Destiny depicts the Brooklyn waterfront after global warming has raised sea levels.
One of the paintings in the exhibit “A Fable for Tomorrow,” Alexis Rockman’s powerful Manifest Destiny depicts the Brooklyn waterfront after global warming has raised sea levels.
Manifest Destiny oil on wood, 96 x 288 in.
All rights reserved © 2004
Courtesy of artist Alexis Rockman
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Despite the attention-grabbing illustrations of the Dutch edition that accompanied the excerpts published in Elseviers Weekblad, Silent Spring had a much more muted impact in the Netherlands and most of Europe than in the United States.
Despite the attention-grabbing illustrations of the Dutch edition that accompanied the excerpts published in Elseviers Weekblad, Silent Spring had a much more muted impact in the Netherlands and most of Europe than in the United States.
© 1963 Elseviers Weekblad
Used by permission
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Headlines also capture the uproar that Silent Spring caused in France (“The poisons crisis of the twentieth century”; “Silent spring or voice crying in the desert?”; “Chlorinated insecticides poison the United States”; “These poisons that kill parasites quickly … and man slowly”; “A noble voice to the rescue of Nature”; and “The sorcerer’s apprentices”). Collage created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library.
Headlines also capture the uproar that Silent Spring caused in France (“The poisons crisis of the twentieth century”; “Silent spring or voice crying in the desert?”; “Chlorinated insecticides poison the United States”; “These poisons that kill parasites quickly … and man slowly”; “A noble voice to the rescue of Nature”; and “The sorcerer’s apprentices”). Collage created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library.
Collage created by the author from originals at Beinecke Library, YCAL MSS 46 Box 62 f. 1108. Used by permission.
This work is used by permission of the copyright holder.
Logo of the National Organic program
Logo of the National Organic program
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
How to cite:
Note: This version, published in 2020, includes minor updates to the original 2012 virtual exhibition and applies the Environment & Society Portal’s responsive layout.
Stoll, Mark. “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a Book that Changed the World.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2012, no. 1 [updated 6 February 2020]. Version 2.0. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8842.
ISSN 2198-7696 Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a Book that Changed the World
This virtual exhibition presents the global reception and impact of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as well as the book’s legacy in popular culture, music, literature, and the arts.
This version 2, published in 2020, includes minor updates to the original 2012 virtual exhibition (view PDF here) and applies the Environment & Society Portal’s responsive layout.
Mark StollAbout the author
