Virtual Speaker & Performance Series "Defender of Florida's Environment"

Peggy Macdonald presents
"Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida's Environment"

Join us as we celebrate Earth Day 2021 with a program exploring the fascinating life of conservationist Marjorie Harris Carr (1915-1997) - who used the power of the pen and grassroots activism to protect and preserve many of north central Florida’s ecological treasures. Carr launched her conservation career in the 1950s while raising five children. She is best known for leading the fight against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cross Florida Barge Canal.

Author and historian Peggy Macdonald will trace Carr’s early life in Florida raised by naturalist parents, through her education and initial career as a scientist. Macdonald will correct many long-held misapprehensions about the self-described “housewife from Micanopy,” who later struggled to balance career and family with her husband, Archie Carr, a pioneering conservation biologist - while becoming one of the century’s leading environmental activists.

About the Book:

Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida's Environment is a full-length biography that takes 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.

Please support your local bookstore! Midtown Reader is our partner for the 2021 Spring Virtual Speaker Series book titles.  

About the Author:

Dr. Peggy Macdonald is a public historian and adjunct professor at Stetson University and Indian River State College. A native Floridian, Dr. Macdonald gives presentations on a variety of topics in Florida history with Florida Humanities. She has written about local and Florida history for FORUM Magazine, Gainesville Magazine, Our Town Magazine, and Senior Times. Dr. Macdonald's first book, Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida's Environment, was published by the University Press of Florida in 2014. She is currently working on a book about Florida’s female pioneers. Dr. Macdonald is an alumna of the University of Florida, where she received a Ph.D. in American history. She served as Executive Director of the Matheson History Museum in Gainesville from 2015 – 2019.

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program, do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.