Rosalie Barrow Edge by

Who was Rosalie Edge?

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:42:36 UTC

Rosalie Edge was an environmentalist and suffragist who was notable for establishing the Emergency Conservation Committee in 1929 in order to push the government and the Audubon Society to be more aggressive and holistic in the protection of animals, especially wild birds.

Edge was a militant conservationist, among the first to advocate for the protection of all creatures, rather than merely the ones that were "useful" to humans or to the ecosystem.

Edge is also notable for founding Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the world's first preserve for birds of prey, in 1934.

Childhood

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:47:06 UTC

Rosalie was born in New York City to a wealthy and well-connected family. Her father was an English banker, and her mother was from an elite New York family with connections to Dutch aristocracy. She was the youngest of her siblings, who were well into their late teens when she was born. Her father doted on her, but he died when she was only a young child.

Education

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:48:59 UTC

After her father's death, Rosalie was sent to boarding school, where she excelled in all her subjects and was by all accounts a good student. She loved to read and was a skilled writer.

Family life

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:50:56 UTC

Her mother became less involved after her father's death; she grieved very heavily, and her father had not finalized his will at his time of death, which sent his family into slight disrepair. So, Rosalie spent a lot of time with her grandmother, when she was not at school. Her grandmother was influential in instilling a love of nature, though her passion for conservation would not be ignited for many years.

Romance with Charles Noel Edge

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:54:05 UTC

As a young adult, around the age of 18, Rosalie met Charles Noel Edge, a British engineer. The two formed a close bond, and for years they exchanged letters back and forth. After a very long friendship and an even longer engagement, they married in Japan on May 27, 1909, staying in various countries in Asia for three years before moving back to New York City.

Children

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:56:33 UTC

On March 25, 1913, her first child, Peter, was born. On May 14, 1915, her second and last child, Margaret, was born. During these years, she pushed off going into activism in order to focus on her family.

Separation

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 04:59:41 UTC

After Rosalie became a suffragist and an avid birdwatcher, the rift between her and her husband grew, as he did not support women's suffrage and was uninterested in birding. Probably due to these factors, as well as the likelihood that Charles was having an affair, Rosalie and Charles Edge separated in the spring of 1921. They never again lived together, and there was continuous animosity between them.

A Crisis in Conservation

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:00:33 UTC

In August 1929, while in Paris, Rosalie was sent a copy of the pamphlet A Crisis in Conservation, which brought her attention to the plight of wild birds for the first time. The pamphlet decried the poor protection laws and accused organizations such as the National Association of Audubon Societies of being in the pockets of ammunition makers and hunters. The pamphlet was a turning point in her life, starting her on her conservation journey. She became a champion of the cause almost immediately.

Conflict with the Audubon Society

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:01:40 UTC

In October 29, 1929, Rosalie attended the Audubon annual meeting and interrogated the board about the pamphlet and its accusations, which were that the society was in the pockets of rich hunters and they were killing wild animals on some of their reserves. She was criticized for derailing the entire meeting with her questions, messing up the schedule and ruining the lunch. This was only the first time she would become an inconvenience to institutions in the name of conservation.

Emergency Conservation Committee

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:03:51 UTC

In Spring 1930, frustrated with the slowness of her fellow conservationists and eager to get her ideas out there, she founded the Emergency Conservation Committee and started distributing pamphlets. These pamphlets were successful in spreading her ideas, got her moderate donations, and influenced the perspectives and actions of other conservationists. She also regularly wrote letters to the editors of various magazines to appeal to a wider audience.

Epiphany

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:04:58 UTC

On a boat on her way from Asia to New York in February 1913, Rosalie met Sybil Haig Thomas, the Lady Rhondda, a suffragist who brought her attention to the women’s movement for the first time and convinced her to join the Cause.

New York State Woman Suffrage Party

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:06:35 UTC

After taking a few years to have her children and focus on building her new family life in New York, she joined the suffrage movement, and quickly became secretary and treasurer of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, where she stayed from 1915 to 1920. The experience was a crash course in organizing and advocacy for her.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:08:11 UTC

In the spring of 1934, Rosalie bought Hawk Mountain in order to prevent another annual hawk hunt, during which thousands of birds of prey were killed every year. Over the next two years, she finished paying for and developing the area, which was named Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. The sanctuary still exists today and is considered a leader in raptor conservation science.

Other National Parks

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:10:05 UTC

Rosalie was instrumental in the establishment of Olympic National Park and Kings Canyon National Park, in 1938 and 1940 respectively. She used on-the-ground tactics, as well as a little of her inheritance that she had left over from her wealthy father, to help in the creation of these parks, influencing notable figures and working with conservationists.

End of the Rivalry

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:13:12 UTC

In the fall of 1962, after decades of conservation work, Rosalie made peace with the Audubon society. The organization had long since been conforming to many of the radical suggestions she had made in 1929, making her ahead of the curve by over 30 years. This event came at the right time because Rosalie died only a few weeks later, on November 30, 1962.

Influence

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:18:23 UTC

Though she did not achieve icon status in conservation to the level of someone like John Muir, she was quietly influential in the field. The famed environmentalist and writer Rachel Carson, who wrote the renowned expose Silent Spring, spent much of her time at Hawk Mountain and used data from the sanctuary to support some of her research.

Legacy

kennaownbey — 2024-04-30 05:20:29 UTC

Her tenacity and writing skill spread her ideas far and wide, and eventually concepts that had once been radical, such as the preservation of all creatures in an ecosystem rather than just ones singled out for particular qualities or usefulness, is now a popular belief among environmentalists, conservationists, and ecologists. She might not have had a particularly glamorous career, but she was successful in everything she set out to do, which is an admirable trait in a conservationist.

Context

kennaownbey — 2024-05-04 03:14:59 UTC

The movement for women's suffrage had been going on for decades at this point, and was ramping up in these years in particular, but Rosalie had led a very sheltered life and had not been very aware of the suffrage movement during childhood and into early adulthood. While in Japan with her new husband during part of the heights of the movement, she had been almost entirely deficient in news from the West, aside what would be relayed to her by friend and family. Her meeting with the Lady Rhondda was truly her first real awakening to the cause.

Context

kennaownbey — 2024-05-04 03:19:41 UTC

During this time, the traditional mode of conservation was to conserve what is "useful" to humans. This usually means what is useful to powerful people, or what is considered important to them and to industry.

The National Association of Audubon Societies (the NAAS, or the Audubon Society) had taken a stance against bird feathers used for fashion (especially women's hats), but had not taken as hard of a stance for things like hunting. Many people at the time believed that many conservation organizations were in the pockets of the rich and were beholden to their interests. In the Audubon Society's case, many would come to believe that this was true.

Privileges and Strengths

kennaownbey — 2024-05-04 03:29:43 UTC

Her personality as a vibrant, tenacious, and intelligent individual and her skill in writing from her prestigious education helped her in her conservation efforts.

Generational wealth from her father and husband also allowed her to fund her committee and supplies and to acquire Hawk Mountain in a lease-to-buy program, though she was never excessively rich as an adult.

Her passion and single-mindedness allowed her to blow past many obstacles that other activists trying to make a difference or get their ideas out there would face, especially alongside her generational wealth.

Her constant engagement with other conservationists and with media garnered her a reputation which helped in her efforts to further her own projects as well as the projects of others.

Her experiences as a suffragist gave her the skills she needed to be successful as a conservationist.

Obstacles and Setbacks

kennaownbey — 2024-05-04 03:32:18 UTC

Her family responsibilities and her relationship with her husband set her back for many years, preventing her from engaging in activist work.

Her lack of tangible political power in institutions outside of her own limited the scope of her influence, though she tried to supplement that with her writing. Despite history eventually coming to favor her stance on conservation, there were many years where she was not taken seriously by Audubon or other conservationists.

Most of her wealth and time was spent on the ECC and Hawk Mountain, and her projects required great investments.