Cynthia grew up in Chickadee Valley in the house her paternal grandparents purchased as a summer residence in the early 1920s. They became close friends with Rex Brasher, who in those years was working on his monumental Birds and Trees of North America. Cynthia’s father, Glenn O. Carter, Jr., became Rex’s first patron at the age of twelve. After Cynthia returned to Chickadee Valley, she became a founding member of the Rex Brasher Association in 2008, dedicated to restoring Rex’s reputation as the greatest North American painter of birds.
After graduating from Kenyon College with a B.A. in History, Cynthia completed an apprenticeship in historical editing and worked for more than a decade as a book editor at the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1992, she completed a degree in social work, which led her to a career focused on social justice issues and the representation of individuals facing serious criminal charges. Cynthia retired from the Connecticut Office of the Chief Public Defender in 2019, which has allowed her to focus her interests in publishing and research on the RBA.
Cynthia always knew about Rex Brasher, because her family home contained several of his paintings and Cynthia’s father revered Rex. But it was only when she returned to Chickadee Valley and uncovered a trove of materials left in the care of her family that she fully appreciated the magnitude of Rex’s endeavor. Cynthia is determined to return Rex to his rightful place in history as a visionary who understood the critical importance of birds to our human world and as an extraordinary artist who allowed us to see them in living color.