Info
Botanist, Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (c.
1864–1943)
George Washington Carver was a prominent
African-American scientist and inventor. Carver is best known for the many uses
he devised for the peanut.
George Washington
Carver - Mini Biography (TV-14; 4:26) A short biography of George
Washington Carver who was offered a horticultural position by Booker
T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute and went on to discovering countless
uses for the peanut and other important crops.
George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond,
Missouri, around 1864. The exact year and date of his birth are unknown. Carver
went on to become one of the most prominent scientists and inventors of his
time, as well as a teacher at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver devised over 100
products using one major crop—the peanut—including dyes, plastics and gasoline.
He died in 1943.
Botanist and inventor George Washington Carver was one of
many children born to Mary and Giles, an enslaved couple owned by Moses Carver.
He was born during the Civil War years, most likely in 1864. A week after his
birth, George was kidnapped along with his sister and mother from the Carver
farm by raiders from the neighboring state of Arkansas. The three were sold in
Kentucky, and among them only the infant George was located by an agent of
Moses Carver and returned to Missouri.
The conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 brought the end of
slavery in Missouri. Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, decided to keep George
and his brother James at their home after that time, raising and educating the
two boys. Susan Carver taught George to read and write, since no local school
would accept black students at the time.
The search for knowledge would remain a driving force for
the rest of George's life. As a young man, he left the Carver home to travel to
a school for black children 10 miles away. It was at this point that the boy,
who had always identified himself as "Carver's George" first came to
be known as "George Carver." Carver attended a series of schools
before receiving his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas.
Accepted to Highland College in Highland, Kansas, Carver was
denied admittance once college administrators learned of his race. Instead of
attending classes, he homesteaded a claim, where he conducted biological
experiments and compiled a geological collection. While interested in science,
Carver was also interested in the arts. In 1890, he began studying art and
music at Simpson College in Iowa, developing his painting and drawing skills
through sketches of botanical samples. His obvious aptitude for drawing the
natural world prompted a teacher to suggest that Carver enroll in the botany
program at the Iowa State Agricultural College.
Carver moved to Ames and began his botanical studies the
following year as the first black student at Iowa State. Carver excelled in his
studies. Upon completion of his Bachelor of Science degree, Carver's professors
Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel persuaded him to stay on for a master's degree.
His graduate studies included intensive work in plant pathology at the Iowa
Experiment Station. In these years, Carver established his reputation as a
brilliant botanist and began the work that he would pursue for the remainder of
his career
After graduating from Iowa State, Carver embarked on a
career of teaching and research. Booker T. Washington, the principal of the
African-American Tuskegee Institute, hired Carver to run the school's
agricultural department in 1896. Washington lured the promising young botanist
to the institute with a hefty salary and the promise of two rooms on campus,
while most faculty members lived with a roommate. Carver's special status
stemmed from his accomplishments and reputation, as well as his degree from a
prominent institution not normally open to black students.
Tuskegee's agricultural department achieved national renown
under Carver's leadership, with a curriculum and a faculty that he helped to
shape. Areas of research and training included methods of crop rotation and the
development of alternative cash crops for farmers in areas heavily planted with
cotton. This work helped struggling sharecroppers in the South, many of
them former slaves now faced with necessary cultivation under harsh conditions
including the devastation of the boll weevil in 1892. The development of new
crops and diversification of crop use helped to stabilize the livelihoods of
these people who had backgrounds not unlike Carver's own.
The education of African-American students at Tuskegee
contributed directly to the effort of economic stabilization among blacks. In
addition to formal education in a traditional classroom setting, Carver
pioneered a mobile classroom to bring his lessons to farmers. The classroom was
known as a "Jesup wagon," after New York financier and Tuskegee donor
Morris Ketchum Jesup.
Carver's work at Tuskegee included groundbreaking research
on plant biology that brought him to national prominence. Many of these early
experiments focused on the development of new uses for crops such as peanuts,
sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. The hundreds of products he invented
included plastics, paints, dyes and even a kind of gasoline. In 1920, Carver
delivered a speech before the Peanut Growers Association, attesting to the wide
potential of peanuts. The following year, he testified before Congress in
support of a tariff on imported peanuts. With the help of Carver's testimony,
Congress passed the tariff in 1922.
Carver's prominence as a scientific expert made him one of
the most famous African-Americans and one of the best-known African-American
intellectuals of his time. By the time of his testimony, however, Carver had
already achieved international fame in political and professional circles.
President Theodore Roosevelt admired his work and sought his advice on
agricultural matters in the United States. Carver was also recognized abroad
for his scientific expertise. In 1916, he was made a member of the British
Royal Society of Arts—a rare honor for an American. Carver also advised Indian
leader Mahatma Gandhi on matters of agriculture and nutrition.
READ ARTICLE: 7 facts about George Washington Carver
Carver used his celebrity to promote scientific causes for
the remainder of his life. He wrote a syndicated newspaper column and toured
the nation, speaking on the importance of agricultural innovation, the
achievements at Tuskegee, and the possibilities for racial harmony in the
United States. From 1923 to 1933, Carver toured white Southern colleges for the
Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
The politics of accommodation championed by both George
Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington were anathema to activists who
sought more radical change. Despite his involvement with government-funded
scientific research and programs, Carver largely remained outside of the
political sphere, and declined to criticize prevailing social norms
outright. Nonetheless, Carver's scholarship and research contributed to
improved quality of life for many farming families, and made Carver an icon for
African-Americans and Anglo-Americans alike.
George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943, at the age
of 78 after falling down the stairs at his home. He was buried next to Booker
T. Washington on the Tuskegee grounds. Carver's epitaph reads: "He could
have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and
honor in being helpful to the world."
Legacy
Carver's iconic status remained after his death, in part due
to steps that Carver and others took during his lifetime to establish his
legacy. Carver, who had lived a frugal life, used his savings to establish a
museum devoted to his work, including some of his own paintings and drawings.
In December 1947, a fire broke out in the museum, destroying much of the
collection. One of the surviving works by Carver is a painting of a yucca and a
cactus, displayed at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In
addition to the museum, Carver also established the George Washington Carver
Foundation at Tuskegee, with the aim of supporting future agricultural
research.
A project to erect a national monument in Carver's
honor also began before his death. Harry S. Truman, then a senator from
Missouri, sponsored a bill in favor of a monument during World War II.
Supporters of the bill argued that the wartime expenditure was warranted
because the monument would promote patriotic fervor among African-Americans and
encourage them to enlist in the military. The bill passed unanimously in both
houses.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000
for the monument west of Diamond, Missouri—the site of the plantation where
Carver lived as a child. This was the first national monument dedicated to an
African-American. The 210-acre complex includes a statue of Carver as well as a
nature trail, museum and cemetery.
Carver appeared on U.S. commemorative postal stamps in 1948
and 1998, as well as a commemorative half dollar coin minted between 1951 and
1954. Numerous schools bear his name, as do two United States military vessels.
In 2005, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis opened a George Washington
Carver garden, which includes a life-size statue of the garden's famous
namesake. These honors attest to George Washington Carver's enduring legacy as
an icon of African-American achievement, and of American ingenuity more
broadly. Carver's life has come to symbolize the transformative potential of
education, even for those born into the most unfortunate and difficult of
circumstances.
George Washington Carver
OCCUPATION
BIRTH DATE
c. January, 1864
DEATH DATE
EDUCATION
PLACE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF DEATH
Tuskegee, Alabama
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