George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was a talented man who survived slavery and the loss of both parents at an early age. He spent his life trying to improve agricultural methods so that farmers could rise above poverty. He is perhaps most famous for inventing many uses for the peanut.

Born to slaves

George Washington Carver was born in a small cabin in Diamond, Missouri , shortly before the end of the American Civil War (1861–65). His mother was a slave owned by Moses and Susan Carver (slaves took the last names of their owners). His father, also a slave, was killed in an accident shortly after his son's birth. After Carver's mother was kidnapped, he and his brother were raised by the Carvers. Although they struggled financially, the Carvers were loving parents to the orphaned boys. Carver spent much of his childhood outdoors, where he explored his natural surroundings. He built a pond and even grew a plant nursery in the woods. His hobby earned him the nickname “plant doctor.”

At the age of ten, Carver left his family to attend a school that allowed African American students. He took care of himself by working odd jobs and living with different families. In 1885, when he was twenty years old, he graduated from high school and was accepted at Highland

College in Kansas , but when he arrived he was turned away because the school did not accept African Americans. Carver, lacking money and prospects, found work on a nearby fruit farm.

Down but not out

The discrimination that kept Carver out of Highland College did not discourage him from furthering his education. In 1890, he began attending Simpson College in Iowa , where he hoped to study painting. His art teacher recognized Carver's talent, but knew he would find it difficult to be accepted as an artist. She suggested a career in botany (the study of plants) and helped him get admitted to the Iowa Agricultural College in Ames.

It proved to be a wise move for Carver. He got involved in a variety of clubs and activities at the college, and he was an excellent student whose natural talent in agriculture made him popular among his peers and professors. Carver received his bachelor's degree and stayed on for graduate work. He received his master's degree in 1896.

Tuskegee calls

After earning his master's degree, Carver received a surprise invitation from respected educator Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), the African American founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuskegee had been established in the 1880s as an industrial and agricultural school for African American students. It was the first of its kind and a great success. Carver was asked to become its director of agriculture, and he accepted.

In addition to being head of the department, Carver worked with local farmers. The region was devastatingly poor, and Carver helped by writing instructional pamphlets on farming. He also established a mobile school that crossed the South, visiting farmers and teaching them better agricultural methods. At first, when it began in 1906, the school was nothing more than a mule-drawn cart, but before long, the cart was replaced by a truck carrying farming tools and exhibits.

In 1910, Carver became the director of a new research department, and his title became “consulting chemist.” Carver enjoyed the research that went along with this new title, but he lacked a proper laboratory and equipment. Most of the time, he had to make his own equipment out of old bottles, wire, and other materials at hand.

The field of scientific agriculture—the exploration of alternative farming methods—was new at the time. In his attempts to improve the quality of life for local farmers, Carver analyzed water and soil, experimented with paints made of clay, and searched for new, inexpensive foods to supplement their diets. The most versatile resource Carver found was the peanut. He used it to restore nitrogen to the depleted soil, and from it he made soap, shampoo, metal polish, even adhesives. The one thing he did not make from peanuts was peanut butter.

Honored for lifetime achievements

Carver became an advocate of “chemurgy,” the concept of putting chemistry to work in industry for farmers. He met industrialist and automobile pioneer Henry Ford (1863–1947) in 1937, and the two formed an immediate and lifelong friendship. In 1940, Carver founded the Carver Museum to continue and preserve his work, and at its opening Ford dedicated the museum.

Shortly after the opening of the museum, Carver's health began to fail. Carver died of injuries from falling down a flight of stairs, and he was buried next to Booker T. Washington. On his headstone was carved, “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”

Carver received numerous awards and honors during his lifetime. After his death in 1943, he was twice featured on commemorative postage stamps. He was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1977 and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990. Carver's birthplace in southwestern Missouri is now a national monument—the first national birthplace monument honoring a non-president.