Background
Shirley Briggs was born on May 12, 1918, in Iowa City, Iowa, United States.
editor educator illustrator author
Shirley Briggs was born on May 12, 1918, in Iowa City, Iowa, United States.
Shirley Ann Briggs was studying art at the University of Iowa, where one of her professors was the famous “American Gothic" painter Grant Wood. Here she took a Bachelor of Arts in 1939, followed by a Masters's degree in sculpture in 1940.
Shirley Ann Briggs started her career as a teacher and illustrator. After teaching art at North Dakota State College for two years and working as an illustrator for Glenn Marlin Co. for another two years, she was hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Here Briggs met Carson, the environmentalist famous for writing Silent Spring, and Briggs became involved in illustrating nature scenes. From 1948 until 1954 she was chief of graphics for the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior, and she then worked as a painter for the Smithsonian Institute for a year and as a diorama artist for the National Park Service for another year. From 1947 until 1969 she was also the editor of Atlantic Naturalist magazine. Briggs taught natural history for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 1960s, and around this time helped Carson research her famous book. After Carson died from cancer in 1964, Briggs helped found the Rachel Carson Council. Working with the council, she coauthored the Basic Guide to Pesticides (1992), which won the Rachel Carson Award from the Environmental Protection Agency. A longtime member of the Audubon Society, Briggs was often involved in bird counting surveys; she also edited and illustrated The Trumpeter Swan (1960) and Landscaping for Birds (1973), as well as illustrating such nature titles as The Wonders of Seeds (1956) and Insects and Phints (1963).
(This work contains the physical properties of over 700 pe...)
1992(Softcover, 62-page booklet, illustrated from 1973 by the ...)
1973
