Rosalie Edge
| Rosalie Barrow Edge | |
|---|---|
Rosalie Edge, from a 1917 publication.
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| Born | November 3, 1877 |
| Died | November 20, 1962 (aged 85) |
| Known for | Founder of Hawk Mountain and Emergency Conservation Committee |
| Spouse | Charles Noel Edge |
Rosalie Barrow Edge (November 3, 1877 – November 30, 1962) was a New York socialite, suffragist, and amateur birdwatcher who in 1929 established the Emergency Conservation Committee to expose the conservation establishment’s ineffectiveness, and strongly advocate for species preservation. In 1934 Edge also founded the world's first preserve for birds of prey — Hawk Mountain Sanctuary near Kempton, Pennsylvania. During the Great Depression, Edge was considered the United States' most militant conservationist (Hawk of Mercy). In 1948, a profile of her in The New Yorker described her as "the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation" (New Yorker, April 17, 1948).
On November 3, 1877, Mabel Rosalie Barrow was born in New York City , the youngest of five surviving children of John Wylie Barrow and Harriet Bowen Woodward Barrow. John Wylie Barrow, a wealthy British importer and accountant, was a first cousin to Charles Dickens. In May 1909, 32-year-old Mabel Rosalie went to Yokohama, Japan, to marry Charles Noel Edge, a British civil engineer. After traveling in Asia for about three years in connection with Charles's employment, the Edges returned to New York permanently. Their children Peter and Margaret were born in New York (Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy).
In 1915, Edge joined the Equal Franchise Society, becoming a social activist for the first time in the women’s voting rights movement. Edge gave speeches and wrote pro-suffrage pamphlets, and later served as the secretary-treasurer of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party under Carrie Chapman Catt (Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy).
Edge began to take a strong interest in birdwatching in the 1920s, when she joined ornithologists and amateur birdwatchers in Central Park. She was inspired to become a conservation activist after reading of the slaughter of 70,000 bald eagles in the Alaskan Territory, without any protest from the leading bird protection organizations of the day. She also denounced the common practice of appreciating birds by killing and mounting them for study, regardless of species' rarity.
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