When it came to environmental action in the early days of Rye, Edith Read was in a class by herself. One of Rye’s most notable residents, Read was responsible for bringing the Rye Nature Center to fruition, championing the Marshlands and rescuing the land that is today known as the Edith Read Sanctuary.

To honor this extraordinary woman, the Rye Historical Society has opened a new exhibit at the Square House, entitled “Remembering Edith Read: Rye’s Environmental Champion.”

“Our focus was not just this remarkable woman but what she accomplished as Rye’s first environmental champion,” said Sheri Jordan, director of the Rye Historical Society. “She really was Mrs. Conservation in her day and age and so far ahead of her time fighting these battles in saving green space and nature centers.”

An opening reception was held on Feb. 7, where many of Rye’s illustrious citizens, including Senator Suzi Oppenheimer and former Rye Mayor Steve Otis, came to take a first glance at the exhibit.

Many of Read’s family were on hand, and her granddaughter Gwynne Lamb Grimes performed a dramatic reading of highlights from an oral presentation that Read had given for the Historical Society 20 years ago.

“We started off the exhibit with a little bit about her life in Rye and showed her family life,” Jordan said. “It wasn’t until her children were older, with the support and encouragement of her husband, an avid birder, that she really blossomed and became this driving force.”

Read remained a dynamic force in the community until her death in 2006 at age 102.

“The accomplishments that we focused on in our exhibit were her creating the Rye Nature Center, and also her being instrumental in creating the Marshland Conservatory,” Jordan said. “The third one is rescuing the piece of ground out behind Playland, which was ultimately given her name, the Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary.”

Although many people were involved, as the exhibit points out, Read was really the driving force for basically getting the piece of property that became the Rye Nature Center.

“She was really responsible for getting that,” Jordan said. “She didn’t give up. She made the phone calls, she attended everything, until it finally happened.”

Exhibit curator Kristina Bicher collected artifacts for the exhibit from the Read family, while photographs, documents and award plaques were provided by the Nature Center, Historical Society, Sanctuary and Rye Country Day.

“She was just absolutely amazing because in so many ways, she was just like the average woman you find in Rye,” she said. “She was born and raised in Rye, but started out her early life like so many of us. She got married here, had kids, volunteered for Twig [hospital foundation], she was in the League of Women Voters. She became a catalyst for so much.”

Another aspect of the display that touches on life today in Rye deals with Read’s experiences with flooding, shown through pictures of the flood bank in the 30s.

“She made the mistake of buying a house in Indian Village, moved in and got flooded out,” Jordan said. “She helped with lots of telephone calls and using connections, and not giving up until Westchester County was designated as a soil and conservation district by the federal government. Up until this time, it had only been awarded to agricultural areas.”

Her efforts were important, as it gave Rye access to funding and studies to find out how to mitigate flood control, which still proves advantageous to residents today.
“She considered it a failure but it was a triumph,” Jordan said. “It was just not something that could be solved very easily.”

Local artist Kathleen Jordan Pasquale was commissioned to complete two paintings for the exhibit and they will be auctioned off when the exhibit ends on May 14.

“It was really very much a community effort. We were thrilled with the number of people who were interested in helping and supporting us,” Jordan said. “The idea was to show this woman at the forefront of the environmental movement. She was deeply involved in conservation.”