The origins of Rosalie Edge's Emergency Conservation Committee, 1930--1962: A historical analysis

Rosalie Edge's Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC) began in 1930 as a means to reform the Audubon Society and to front the pamphlets of Willard Van Name, an associate curator of the American Museum of Natural History censored because of his criticisms of the Audubon Society. The ECC ended in 1962 with the death of Edge. It has been remembered in history primarily for its aggressive advocacy of wildlife and wildlands in campaigns that included the establishment of Olympic National Park in northwestern Washington and the creation of the world's first sanctuary for birds of prey at Hawk Mountain in southeastern Pennsylvania.; Though the ECC held national prominence in the conservation movement, no history of the organization currently exists. This analysis traces the origins of the ECC to determine its place in the history of conservation in the United States. The analysis concludes that the ECC's campaigns for wildland preservation and wildlife protection represented early expressions of an ecological point of view in conservation. The ecological perspective had few adherents at the time of the ECC, but it gained a larger following during the environmental movement. Hence, the ECC may be regarded as a proto-environmental group whose ideas exemplified a transitional phase in the conservation movement.