Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida's Environment

by Peggy Macdonald

Overview

Marjorie Harris Carr (1915-1997) is best known for leading the fight against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cross Florida Barge Canal. In this first full-length biography, Peggy Macdonald corrects many long-held misapprehensions about the self-described “housewife from Micanopy,” who struggled to balance career and family with her husband, Archie Carr, a pioneering conservation biologist.

Born in Boston, Carr grew up in southwest Florida, exploring marshes and waterways and observing firsthand the impact of unchecked development on the state’s flora and fauna. Macdonald’s work depicts a determined woman and Phi Beta Kappa scholar who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in zoology only to see her career thwarted by institutionalized gender discrimination. Carr launched her conservation career in the 1950s while raising five children and eventually became one of the century’s leading environmental activists.

A series of ecological catastrophes in the 1960s placed Florida in the vanguard of the burgeoning environmental revolution as the nation’s developing eco-consciousness ushered in a wave of revolutionary legislation. With Carr serving as one of the most effective leaders of a powerful contingent of citizen activists who opposed dredging a canal across the state, “Free the Ocklawaha” became a rallying cry for environmentalists throughout the country.

Marjorie Harris Carr is an intimate look at this remarkable woman who dedicated her life to conserving Florida’s wildlife and wild places. It is also a revelation of how the grassroots battle to save a small but vitally important river in central Florida transformed the modern environmental movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813047553
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Peggy Macdonald is an adjunct professor of history at Stetson University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Marjorie Harris Carr s Girlhood: A Young Naturalist Growing Up in Florida 11

2 Blending Science and Marriage in the New Deal Era 36

3 Honduras in the 1940s: A Naturalist's Paradise 67

4 Marjorie Harris Carr's Early Conservation Career 95

5 Protecting Paradise: Marjorie Harris Carr Launches the Campaign to Save the Ocklawaha River 124

6 Florida Defenders of the Environment and the Death of the Cross Florida Barge Canal 161

Conclusion 196

Acknowledgments 211

Chronology: The Life of Marjorie Harris Carr 215

Notes 223

Bibliography 245

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating tale of Carr’s personal and professional life".—Florida Historical Quarterly

From the Publisher