Engaging with the Environment

Eliza Scidmore was a pioneer of women's equality, becoming the first female board member of hte National Geographic Society. Her travel writing inspired thousands of visitors to Glacier Bay, influencing its later protection as a National Monument. Most notably, she strongly advocated for the. planting of cherry blossom trees on the National Mall in Washington DC.

Inspired by women’s success to conserve a state park and motivated by looming industrialization, the dignified Dorothy Buell rallied public support and was instrumental in the battle to establish a national park in the Indiana Dunes. With her enthusiasm, wit, and tireless energy, she established and directed the Save the Dunes Council where she courageously led citizens insistent on stopping the despoiling of remaining unprotected habitat in Duneland.

Sylvia Troy was a resounding voice in securing the Indiana Dunes National Park’s first expansion bill, and vehemently protected the Dunes from further development, while leading the Save the Dunes Council at a critical time in the park’s infancy.

Rachel Louise Carson was a biologist, writer, and environmental activist. Most of Carson's writing expressed her love of nature and concern for future generations. With language that was both poetic and compelling, she inspired people to become interested in the natural world.

Janet Hutchison began advocating for the preservation of Cuyahoga Valley in 1966. As a member of the League of Women Voters, she gave slide shows and bus tours. After park establishment in 1974, Janet volunteered more than 22,600 hours providing expertise in cartography, graphic artistry, data management, and legislative histories.

At the Harriet Keeler Memorial in Brecksville Reservation, the bronze plaque reads: “Teacher – Author – Citizen: She liveth in the continuing generation of the woods she loved.” Following her death in 1921, mourners worked together to preserve over 300 acres of parkland in her honor. It remains a remarkable testament to a remarkable life. Even today, public monuments to a professional woman are rare. Keeler was a Cleveland educator, botanist, author, suffragist.

Elaine Marsh’s career as an Ohio environmental activist spans a half century, from the 1970s to the 2020s. She is widely regarded as the voice of the Cuyahoga River.

No comprehensive data has been compiled about women government employees working in national parks before the NPS was founded on August 25, 1916. Their numbers are undoubtedly few but perhaps not as small as we might imagine. The four early NPS women featured here were exceptional in their own ways, but they are also proxies for the names we no longer remember and the stories we can no longer tell.

A liberated woman and early dunes preservationist, Flora Richardson settled in the rich coastal hills north of Cowles Bog with her husband William in 1910. For 50 years she cultivated her passion for natural history which she passed on through her last will which created the Flora Richardson Foundation, saving her and her husband’s Duneland treasure trove of books and photographs and protecting over 100 acres of flatwoods in LaPorte County.

Emma Bickham Pitcher was a skilled educator who excelled at bridging the information gap between the national park’s science division and an eager public. She was a highly respected amateur naturalist who carefully studied the subtle intricacies of local habitats and enthusiastically relayed them through informative lectures, guided walks, and wonderfully engaging nature-writing.