George P. (George Perkins) Marsh

Born in Woodstock, Vermont, on March 15, 1801, George Perkins Marsh built a remarkably varied life as a lawyer, politician, scholar, and diplomat. He studied at Dartmouth, practiced law in Vermont, and served as a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1840s.

Marsh is most often remembered today for Man and Nature (1864), a book that argued human activity could damage forests, soils, water systems, and climate on a large scale. That insight made him an important early voice in conservation, and many readers now see him as a key precursor to modern environmental thinking.

His public service continued long after Congress. He served as U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire and later became the first United States minister to Italy, remaining there for many years. Marsh died in Vallombrosa, Italy, on July 23, 1882, leaving behind a reputation as both a gifted public servant and one of the earliest American writers to warn that nature was not an inexhaustible resource.