This collection consists of materials gathered by Neil Goodwin, producer and founder of Peace River Films, in creating the 1993 American Experience documentary Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. The bulk of the collection consists of VHS tapes used to create the documentary. This includes interviews with associates and critics of Carson made in the early 1990s as well as material from the period that Silent Spring was published. Along with the tapes are transcriptions of the interviews. Some of these transcriptions have been annotated by the production team. The people interviewed include Paul Brooks, Jean Davis, Jay McMullen, Shirley Briggs, Stan Cath, Roland Clement, Abraham Ribicoff, Stewart Udall, John George, Bob and Nancy Hines, Jean Davis and Bob Hines, Ruth Scott, Eugene Kenaga, Robert Rudd, Thomas Jukes, and Roger Christie.

In addition to the audiovisual material, there is a large amount of research materials. This includes reproductions of materials of Rachel Carson including photographs, letters, drawings, cartoons, promotional materials, partial typescripts of Silent Spring , and notes. These were gathered from multiple libraries including the Beinecke Library at Yale, Ferdinand Hamburger University Archives at John Hopkins University, and Chatham University among others. In addition to these materials are pesticide ads and magazines from the period: Time, Newsweek, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. There is a small amount of correspondence between Neil Goodwin and others from his team and outside persons. These are interspersed through the collection and include summaries of the archival findings as well as reactions about the release of the film.