About Us

While Carson is best known today for her advocacy against indiscriminate pesticide use through her book Silent Spring, her life and work were spent exploring and describing the wonders of the earth, especially the sea. After finishing Silent Spring and while suffering from cancer, Rachel Carson wrote that she most wanted to write a book on 'wonder'-- "that would be Heaven to achieve." While she was unable to achieve this goal*, we can help bring her clear-eyed wonder to children and adults in Silver Spring and beyond.  

The logo design is based on one square inch of endpaper artwork, attributed to Carson colleague Shirley Briggs, which enclosed the Audubon Naturalist Society's** quarterly publications. As an active member and Board member, Carson was a long-time editor of this Atlantic Naturalist and its predecessor The Wood Thrush, where she oversaw articles covering some of the most critical regional ecology and conservation topics of the day.

To us, the image illustrates the physical location at Burnt Mills, which sits on Nacotchtank land, where moving water and ancient boulders meet at the geologic "fall line." Just as important, the logo represents Rachel Carson's genius as one that combined science and literature into something both wonder-filled and wholly impactful. Some may also see a shape of a bird: a nod to the birds of prey that are once again nearly ubiquitous in our region, thanks to the reduction in use of DDT that followed Carson's heroic exposé.  

The Organization

Springsong Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Founder, Executive Director, Board President: Rebecca Henson

Strategic Advisor and Development Lead: Julie Farkas

Associate: Daniela Monreal Castillo

Board Secretary: Elizabeth Levien, AP Environmental Science, Chemistry, & Horticulture Teacher, Montgomery Blair HS

Board Treasurer: Ylla Bishop, Executive Director, Silver Spring Day School

Board Member: Susie Leong,  Nonprofit fundraising professional, public art administrator, urban planner 

Board Member: Alexandra Porr Mazeres, MPH, Communications & marketing professional

Architectural Team: Miche Booz, Emmett VanRiper, Catherine Stratton Treadway of Miche Booz Architect

Advisors: Dr. Linda Lear, Carson Historian and Biographer, Senior Advisor

Subject-matter advisors: Mark Madison, National Historian, USFWS; Dr. Robert Macfarlane, Writer, Cambridge Uni; John D. Juriga, Author, Carson/Hines exhibits curator; Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley; Roger Christie

Community Advisors: Denisse Guitarra, Maryland Conservation Advocate, Nature Forward; Dan Reed, GGWash.org; Renée Katz, Friends of Maydale. 

Springsong officially began in May 2021 as a deep-passion project of Maryland born, Silver Spring resident Rebecca Henson, a Maryland Master Naturalist & mom to two nature-loving boys. She works as an independent climate risk researcher and helps run the nature bookshop at Nature Forward's Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase. She serves on the board of the Neighbors of the Northwest Branch. Rebecca has degrees in History (Vanderbilt University) and Politics, Policy, & Society, focused on comparative environmental policy (University of Bath). 

As outreach on this project has begun, support for the idea of the Springsong Museum has been overwhelming and much appreciated. Brilliant friends and colleagues have contributed their time and brainpower to making the concept stronger and more impactful. We are grateful to receive the support of Nature Forward (formerly the Audubon Naturalist Society), the DC area's oldest independent environmental organization!

As of mid 2023 we have received a Letter of Intent for the lease of the building and a significant portion of the property from Montgomery Parks. 

* Carson's article, Help Your Child to Wonder, was posthumously published as the book The Sense of Wonder. However this was not the "Wonder Book" that Carson spoke of, which was intended to be a full-length, expanded version of the original article.  

** ANS is now named Nature Forward.