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George Washington Carver

 
George Washington Carver

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George Washington Carver



 
 
George Washington Carver (January 1864 – January 5, 1943), was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 scientist
Scientist

A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a system activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy....
, botanist, educator, and inventor
Inventor

An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find....
 whose studies and teaching revolutionized agriculture in the Southern United States. The day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born before slavery was abolished in Missouri in January 1864.

Much of Carver's fame is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops
Crop (agriculture)

A crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, or for any other economic purpose....
 to cotton, such as peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
s and sweet potatoes.






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Quotations


Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

If I know the answer you can have it for the price of a postage stamp. The Lord charges nothing for knowledge and I will charge you the same.

Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable.

Look about you. Take hold of the things that are here. Let them talk to you. You learn to talk to them.






Encyclopedia


George Washington Carver (January 1864 – January 5, 1943), was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 scientist
Scientist

A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a system activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy....
, botanist, educator, and inventor
Inventor

An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find....
 whose studies and teaching revolutionized agriculture in the Southern United States. The day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born before slavery was abolished in Missouri in January 1864.

Much of Carver's fame is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops
Crop (agriculture)

A crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, or for any other economic purpose....
 to cotton, such as peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
s and sweet potatoes. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes that used peanuts. He also created or disseminated about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics
Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance or protect the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care Cream , lotions, Powder , perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubb...
, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline
Gasoline

File:GasCan.jpgGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating....
, and nitroglycerin
Nitroglycerin

Nitroglycerin , also known as nitroglycerine, , trinitroglycerin, trinitroglycerine, 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane and glyceryl trinitrate, is a heavy, colorless, oily, explosive liquid obtained by nitration glycerol....
.

In the Reconstruction South, an agricultural monoculture
Monoculture

Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. The term is also applied in several fields. It is usually developed by extensive growing farmers....
 of cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 depleted the soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
, and in the early 20th century the boll weevil
Boll weevil

The boll weevil is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the US from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all US cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American so...
 destroyed much of the cotton crop. Carver's work on peanuts was intended to provide an alternative crop.

In addition to his work on agricultural extension education for purposes of advocacy of sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: natural environment stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming community. These goals have been defined by a variety of List of academic disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer....
 and appreciation of plants and nature, Carver's important accomplishments also included improvement of racial relations, mentoring children
Mentoring

Mentorship refers to a developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person, referred to as a prot?g?, apprentice, mentee, or being mentored, develop in a specified capacity....
, poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, painting
Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
, and religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
. He served as an example of the importance of hard work, a positive attitude, and a good education. His humility
Humility

Humility, or being humble, is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modesty person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others....
, humanitarianism
Humanitarianism

Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans, in order to better humanity for both moral and logical reasons....
, good nature, frugality
Frugality

Frugality is the practice of# acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and# resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to...
, and rejection of economic materialism
Economic materialism

Materialism refers to how a person or group chooses to spend their factors of production, particularly money and time. Literally, a materialist is a person for whom collecting material goods is an important priority....
 also have been admired widely.

One of his most important roles was in undermining, through the fame of his achievements and many talents, the widespread stereotype
Stereotype

A stereotype is a preconceived idea that attributes certain characteristics to all the members of class or set. The term is often used with a negative connotation when referring to an oversimplified, exaggerated, or demeaning assumption that a particular individual possesses the characteristics associated with the class due to his or her me...
 of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior
Race and intelligence

Race and intelligence have in some cases been claimed to be correlated. Contemporary debate on this issue focuses on the nature, causes, and rectifications of ethnic group differences in intelligence test scores....
 to the white race. In 1941, Time
Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly United States newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition is published from London....
 magazine dubbed him a "Black Leonardo", a reference to the white polymath
Polymath

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
 Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
. To commemorate his life and inventions, George Washington Carver Recognition Day is celebrated on January 5, the anniversary of Carver's death.

Early years

Carver was born in Old Calibrator, Newton County
Newton County, Missouri

Newton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is included in the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 52,636 at the United States Census, 2000....
, Marion Township, near Crystal Place, now known as Diamond
Diamond, Missouri

Diamond is a city in Newton County, Missouri, Missouri, United States near Joplin, Missouri, Missouri. The population was 808 at the 2000 census....
, Missouri
Missouri

Missouri is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska....
, on or around July 12, 1865. His slave owner, Moses Carver
Moses Carver

Moses Carver was a German-American settler and foster father of George Washington Carver.Moses Carver and his brother Richard mi?grated to southwest Missouri around 1838 from Ohio and Illinois....
, was a German American
German American

German Americans are citizens of the United States of Germans ancestry, with traditions and self-identity based on German language and culture....
 immigrant who had purchased George's mother, Mary, and father, Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for seven hundred dollars. Carver had 10 sisters and a brother, all of whom died prematurely.

George, one of his sisters, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders and sold in Kentucky
Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern United States , but it is uncommonly included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwestern United States....
, a common practice. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them. Only Carver was found, orphaned and near death. Carver's mother and sister had already died, although some reports stated that his mother and sister had gone north with soldiers. For returning George, Moses Carver rewarded Bentley.

After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, raised George and his older brother, James, as their own children. They encouraged George Carver to continue his intellectual pursuits, and "Aunt Susan" taught him the basics of reading and writing.

Since blacks
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
 were not allowed at the school in Diamond Grove, and he had received news that there was a school for blacks ten miles (16 km) south in Neosho
Neosho, Missouri

Neosho is the most populous city in and the county seat of Newton County, Missouri, Missouri, United States. Neosho is an integral part of the Joplin, Missouri Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Area....
, he resolved to go there at once. To his dismay, when he reached the town, the school had been closed for the night. As he had nowhere to stay, he slept in a nearby barn. By his own account, the next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he identified himself as "Carver's George," as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was "George Carver". George liked this lady very much, and her words, "You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people", made a great impression on him.

At the age of thirteen, due to his desire to attend the academy there, he relocated to the home of another foster family in Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott, Kansas

Fort Scott is a city in Bourbon County, Kansas, Kansas, United States, 88 miles south of Kansas City, Kansas, on the Marmaton River. The population was 8,297 at the United States Census, 2000, and it was estimated to be in the year ....
. After witnessing the beating to death of a black man at the hands of a group of white men, George left Fort Scott. He subsequently attended a series of schools before earning his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas
Minneapolis, Kansas

Minneapolis is a city in Ottawa County, Kansas, Kansas, United States. The population was 2,046 at the 2000 United States Census. It is the county seat of Ottawa County, Kansas....
.

College

Carver1web
Over the next five years, he sent several letters to colleges and was finally accepted at Highland College in Highland, Kansas
Highland, Kansas

Highland is a city in Doniphan County, Kansas, Kansas, United States. The population was 976 at the United States Census, 2000. It is part of the St....
. He traveled to the college, but he was rejected when they discovered that he was an African American. In August 1886, Carver traveled by wagon with J. F. Beeler from Highland to Eden Township in Ness County, Kansas
Ness County, Kansas

Ness County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of 2000, the population was 3,454. The largest city and county seat is Ness City, Kansas....
. He homesteaded a claim
Homestead Act

Homestead Act was a United States Federal law that gave an applicant freehold title to 160 acres -640 acres of undeveloped land outside of the original 13 colonies....
 near Beeler
Beeler, Kansas

Beeler is an unincorporated area in western Ness County, Kansas, Kansas, United States. It lies along K-96 west of the city of Ness City, Kansas, the county seat of Ness County....
, where he maintained a small conservatory of plants and flowers and a geological collection. With no help from domestic animals he plowed of the claim, planting rice, corn, Indian corn and garden produce, as well as various fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubbery. He also did odd job
Odd job

Odd job can refer to:*Oddjob, a James Bond villain*Odd Jobs, a 1986 comedy film*Odd Job Discounts, a defunct chain store owned by Odd Job Trading...
s in town and worked as a ranch hand
Ranch hand

Ranch hand may refer to:*A manual labourer on a ranch, such as a cowboy*Operation Ranch Hand ...
.

In early 1888, Carver obtained a $3000 loan at the Bank of Ness City
Ness City, Kansas

Ness City is a city in Ness County, Kansas, Kansas, United States. The population was 1,534 at the 2000 United States Census. It is the county seat of Ness County, Kansas....
, stating he wanted to further his education, and by June of that year he had left the area.

In 1890, Carver started studying art and piano at Simpson College
Simpson College

Simpson College is a four-year, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Indianola, Iowa, USA, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church....
 in Indianola, Iowa
Indianola, Iowa

Indianola is a city in Warren County, Iowa, Iowa, United States. The population was 12,998 at the United States Census, 2000. It is the county seat of Warren County, Iowa....
. His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver's talent for painting flowers and plants and convinced him to study botany
Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
 at Iowa State Agricultural College
Iowa State University

The Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant university and Space grant colleges university located in Ames, Iowa, United States....
 in Ames. He transferred there in 1891, the first black student and later the first black faculty member. In order to avoid confusion with another George Carver in his classes, he began to use the name George Washington Carver.

At the end of his undergraduate career in 1894, recognizing Carver's potential, Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel convinced Carver to stay at Iowa State for his master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
. Carver then performed research at the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station under Pammel from 1894 to his graduation in 1896. It is his work at the experiment station in plant pathology
Pathology

Pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through examination of Organ , tissue , bodily fluids and whole bodies . The term also encompasses the related science study of disease processes, called General pathology....
 and mycology
Mycology

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, including their genetics and biochemistry properties, their taxonomy, and ethnomycology as a source for tinder, medicine , food , entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or infection....
 that first gained him national recognition and respect as a botanist.

At Tuskegee with Booker T. Washington

in this circa 1902 photograph taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Benjamin Johnston

Frances "Fannie" Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest United States female photographers and photojournalists....
.]] In 1896, Carver was invited to lead the Agriculture Department at the five-year-old Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, later Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University is a private university, Historically black colleges and universities university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, Alabama, United States....
, by its founder, Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author and the dominant leader of the African-American community nationwide from the 1890s to his death....
. Carver accepted the position, and remained there for 47 years, teaching former slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 farming techniques for self-sufficiency.

In response to Washington's directive to bring education to farmers, Carver designed a mobile school, called a "Jesup wagon" after the New York financier Morris Ketchum Jesup
Morris Ketchum Jesup

Morris Ketchum Jesup , United States banker and philanthropist, was born at Westport, Connecticut.In 1842 he went to New York City, where after some experience in business he established a banking house in 1852....
, who provided funding.

Carver had numerous problems at Tuskegee before he became famous. Carver's perceived arrogance, his higher-than-normal salary and the two rooms he received for his personal use were resented by other faculty. Single faculty members normally bunked two to a room. One of Carver's duties was to administer the Agricultural Experiment Station farms. He was expected to produce and sell farm products to make a profit. He soon proved to be a poor administrator. In 1900, Carver complained that the physical work and the letter-writing his agricultural work required were both too much for him.

In 1902, Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author and the dominant leader of the African-American community nationwide from the 1890s to his death....
 invited Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Benjamin Johnston

Frances "Fannie" Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest United States female photographers and photojournalists....
, a nationally famous female photographer, to Tuskegee. Carver and Nelson Henry, a Tuskegee graduate, accompanied the attractive white woman to the town of Ramer. Several white citizens thought Henry was improperly associating with a white woman. Someone fired three pistol shots at Henry, and he fled. Mobs prevented him from returning. Carver considered himself fortunate to escape alive.

In 1904, a committee reported that Carver's reports on the poultry yard were exaggerated, and Washington criticized Carver about the exaggerations. Carver replied to Washington "Now to be branded as a liar and party to such hellish deception it is more than I can bear, and if your committee feel that I have willfully lied or [was] party to such lies as were told my resignation is at your disposal." In 1910, Carver submitted a letter of resignation in response to a reorganization of the agriculture programs. Carver again threatened to resign in 1912 over his teaching assignment. Carver submitted a letter of resignation in 1913, with the intention of heading up an experiment station elsewhere. He also threatened to resign in 1913 and 1914 when he didn't get a summer teaching assignment. In each case, Washington smoothed things over. It seemed that Carver's wounded pride prompted most of the resignation threats, especially the last two, because he did not need the money from summer work.

In 1911, Washington wrote a lengthy letter to Carver complaining that Carver did not follow orders to plant certain crops at the experiment station. He also refused Carver's demands for a new laboratory and research supplies for Carver's exclusive use and for Carver to teach no classes. He complimented Carver's abilities in teaching and original research but bluntly remarked on his poor administrative skills, "When it comes to the organization of classes, the ability required to secure a properly organized and large school or section of a school, you are wanting in ability. When it comes to the matter of practical farm managing which will secure definite, practical, financial results, you are wanting again in ability." Also in 1911, Carver complained that his laboratory was still without the equipment promised 11 months earlier. At the same time, Carver complained of committees criticizing him and that his "nerves will not stand" any more committee meetings.

Despite their clashes, Booker T. Washington praised Carver in the 1911 book My Larger Education: Being Chapters from My Experience. Washington called Carver "one of the most thoroughly scientific men of the Negro race with whom I am acquainted." Like most later Carver biographies, it also contained exaggerations. It inaccurately claimed that as a young boy Carver "proved to be such a weak and sickly little creature that no attempt was made to put him to work and he was allowed to grow up among chickens and other animals around the servants' quarters, getting his living as best he could." Carver wrote elsewhere that his adoptive parents, the Carvers, were "very kind" to him.

Booker T. Washington died in 1915. His successor made fewer demands on Carver. From 1915 to 1923, Carver's major focus was compiling existing uses and proposing new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, pecans, and other crops. This work and especially his promotion of peanuts for the peanut growers association and before Congress eventually made him the most famous African-American of his time.

Rise to fame

Carver had an interest in helping poor Southern farmers who were working low-quality soils that had been depleted of nutrients by repeated plantings of cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 crops. He and other agricultural cognoscenti urged farmers to restore nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
 to their soils by practicing systematic crop rotation
Crop rotation

Crop rotation or Crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of Crop in the same area in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped....
, alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes (such as peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
s, soybean
Soybean

The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a Pulse . It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years as a food and a component of drugs....
s and cowpea
Cowpea

The Cowpea is one of several species of the widely cultivated genus Vigna. Four cultivated subspecies are recognised:*Vigna unguiculata subsp....
s) that were also sources of protein. Following the crop rotation practice resulted in improved cotton yields and gave farmers new foods and alternative cash crops. In order to train farmers to successfully rotate crops and cultivate the new foods, Carver developed an agricultural extension program for Alabama that was similar to the one at Iowa State. In addition, he founded an industrial research laboratory where he and assistants worked to popularize use of the new plants by developing hundreds of applications for them through original research and also by promoting recipes and applications that they collected from others. Carver distributed his information as agricultural bulletins. (See Carver bulletins below.)

George Washington Carver Peanut Specimen
Much of Carver's fame is related to the hundreds of plant products he popularized. After Carver's death, lists were created of the plant products Carver compiled or originated. Such lists enumerate about 300 applications for and 118 for , although 73 of the 118 were dyes. He made similar investigations into uses for cowpeas, soybeans, and pecans. Carver did not write down formulas for most of his novel plant products so they could not be made by others. Carver is also credited with the invention of peanut butter
Peanut butter

Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground roasted peanuts, with or without added oil. It is popular throughout the world and is also manufactured in some emerging markets....
.

Until 1921, Carver was not widely known for his agricultural research. However, he was known in Washington, D.C. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
 publicly admired his work. James Wilson
James Wilson (U.S. politician)

James Wilson was a Scotland-born United States politician who served as United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1897 – 1913.He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on August 16, 1835....
, a former Iowa state dean and teacher of Carver's, was U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1897 to 1913. Henry Cantwell Wallace
Henry Cantwell Wallace

Henry Cantwell Wallace was a United States of America farm leader. He served as the Secretary of Agriculture between 1921 and 1924. He was the father of Henry Agard Wallace....
, U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1921 to 1924, was one of Carver's teachers at Iowa State. Carver was a friend of Wallace's son, Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace

Henry Agard Wallace was the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States , the 11th United States Secretary of Agriculture , and the tenth United States Secretary of Commerce ....
, also an Iowa State graduate. The younger Wallace served as U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1933 to 1940 and as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president from 1941 to 1945.

In 1916 Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce is a United Kingdom multi-disciplinary institution, based in London....
 in England, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor. However, Carver's promotion of peanuts gained him the most fame.

In 1919, Carver wrote to a peanut company about the great potential he saw for his new peanut milk. Both he and the peanut industry seemed unaware that in 1917 William Melhuish had secured patent #1,243,855 for a milk substitute made from peanuts and soybeans. Despite reservations about his race, the peanut industry invited him as a speaker to their 1920 convention. He discussed "The Possibilities of the Peanut" and exhibited 145 peanut products.

By 1920, U.S. peanut farmers were being undercut with imported peanuts from the Republic of China
Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
. White peanut farmers and processors came together in 1921 to plead their cause before a Congressional committee hearings on a tariff
Tariff

A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary. They are usually associated with protectionism, the economic policy of restraining trade between nations....
. Having already spoken on the subject at the convention of the United Peanut Associations of America, Carver was elected to speak in favor of a peanut tariff before the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
. Carver was a novel choice because of U.S. racial segregation
Racial segregation

File:Segregated cinema entrance3.jpgRacial segregation is the separation of different Race s in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a drinking fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home....
. On arrival, Carver was mocked by surprised Southern congressmen, but he was not deterred and began to explain some of the many uses for the peanut. Initially given ten minutes to present, the now spellbound committee extended his time again and again. The committee rose in applause as he finished his presentation, and the Fordney-McCumber Tariff
Fordney-McCumber Tariff

The Fordney-McCumber Tariff also known as the Fordney McCumber Act, reflected American isolationist inclinations following World War I.Congress displayed a pro-business attitude in passing the tariff and in promoting foreign trade through providing huge loans to the postwar Allied governments who returned the favor by buying American goods...
 of 1922 included a tariff on imported peanuts. Carver's presentation to Congress made him famous, while his intelligence, eloquence, amiability, and courtesy delighted the general public.

Life while famous

portrait, March 1942]] During the last two decades of his life, Carver seemed to enjoy his celebrity status. He was often to be found on the road promoting Tuskegee, peanuts, and racial harmony. Although he only published six agricultural bulletins after 1922, he published articles in peanut industry journals and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Professor Carver's Advice". Business leaders came to seek his help, and he often responded with free advice. Three American presidents—Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
, Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . A Republican Party lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state....
 and Franklin Roosevelt—met with him, and the Crown Prince
Crown Prince

A Crown Prince or Crown Princess is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
 of Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 studied with him for three weeks.

In 1923, Carver received the Spingarn Medal
Spingarn Medal

The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a African American. The same organization also bestows the NAACP Image Award on deserving African American in the arts and entertainment....
 from the NAACP, awarded annually for outstanding achievement. From 1923 to 1933, Carver toured white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation
Commission on Interracial Cooperation

The Commission on Interracial Cooperation was formed in the U.S. South in 1919 in the aftermath of violent race riots that occurred the previous year in several southern cities....
.

Carver was famously criticized in the November 20, 1924, New York Times article "Men of Science Never Talk That Way." The Times considered Carver's statements that God guided his research inconsistent with a scientific approach. The criticism garnered much sympathy for Carver, as many Christians viewed it as an attack on religion.

In 1928, Simpson College
Simpson College

Simpson College is a four-year, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Indianola, Iowa, USA, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church....
 bestowed on Carver an honorary doctorate
Honorary degree

An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements . The degree itself is typically a doctorate or, less commonly, a master's degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the institution in question....
. For a 1929 book on Carver, Raleigh H. Merritt contacted him. Merritt wrote "At present not a great deal has been done to utilize Dr. Carver's discoveries commercially. He says that he is merely scratching the surface of scientific investigations of the possibilities of the peanut and other Southern products." Yet, in 1932 professor of literature James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in U.S. peanut production after the boll weevil
Boll weevil

The boll weevil is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the US from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all US cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American so...
 devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892. Childer's 1932 article on Carver, "A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse", in The American Magazine, and its 1937 reprint in Reader's Digest, did much to establish this Carver myth. Other major magazines and newspapers of the time also exaggerated Carver's impact on the peanut industry.

From 1933 to 1935, Carver was largely occupied with work on peanut oil massages for treating infantile paralysis (polio). Carver received tremendous media attention and visitations from parents and their sick children; however, it was ultimately found that peanut oil was not the miracle cure it was made out to be—it was the massages which provided the benefits. Carver had been a trainer for the Iowa State football team and was skilled as a masseur. From 1935 to 1937, Carver participated in the USDA Disease Survey. Carver had specialized in plant diseases and mycology for his master's degree.

In 1937, Carver attended two chemurgy
Chemurgy

Chemurgy is a branch of applied chemistry that is concerned with preparing industrial products from agricultural raw materials. The word "chemurgy" was coined by chemist William J....
 conferences. He met Henry Ford
Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the United States founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T History of the automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry....
 at the Dearborn, Michigan, conference, and they became close friends. Also in 1937, Carver's health declined. Time magazine reported in 1941 that Henry Ford installed an elevator for Carver because his doctor told him not to climb the 19 stairs to his room. In 1942, the two men denied that they were working together on a solution to the wartime rubber shortage. Carver also did work with soy, which he and Ford considered as an alternative fuel.

In 1939, Carver received the Roosevelt Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Southern Agriculture enscribed "to a scientist humbly seeking the guidance of God and a liberator to men of the white race as well as the black." In 1940, Carver established the George Washington Carver Foundation at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1941, The George Washington Carver Museum
The George Washington Carver Museum

The George Washington Carver Museum is located in Tuskegee, Alabama, It is apart of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. The museum, located on the campus of Tuskegee University, is managed by the National Park Service and is open seven days a week, and tours are self-guided...
 was dedicated at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1942, Henry Ford built a replica of Carver's slave cabin at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village
The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, , in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, Michigan, United States, is the nation's "largest indoor-outdoor history museum" complex....
 in Dearborn as a tribute to his friend. Also in 1942, Ford dedicated the George Washington Carver Laboratory in Dearborn.

Death and afterwards

Upon returning home one day, Carver took a bad fall down a flight of stairs; he was found unconscious by a maid who took him to a hospital. Carver died January 5, 1943, at the age of 78 from complications (anemia
Anemia

Anemia or an?mia/anaemia is defined as a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of hemoglobin, a protein found inside red blood cells ....
) resulting from this fall. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University. Due to his frugality, Carver's life savings totaled $60,000, all of which he donated in his last years and at his death to the Carver Museum and to the George Washington Carver Foundation.

On his grave was written the simplest and most meaningful summary of his life. He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.

Before and after his death, there was a movement to establish a U.S. national monument to Carver. However, because of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 such non-war expenditures were banned by presidential order. Missouri senator Harry S Truman sponsored a bill anyway. In a committee hearing on the bill, one supporter argued that "The bill is not simply a momentary pause on the part of busy men engaged in the conduct of the war, to do honor to one of the truly great Americans of this country, but it is in essence a blow against the Axis, it is in essence a war measure in the sense that it will further unleash and release the energies of roughly 15,000,000 Negro people in this country for full support of our war effort." The bill passed in both houses without a single vote against. On July 14, 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 for the George Washington Carver National Monument
George Washington Carver National Monument

George Washington Carver National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service located about two miles west of Diamond, Missouri; the U.S....
 west-southwest of Diamond, Missouri—an area where Carver had spent time in his childhood. This was the first national monument dedicated to an African-American and also the first to a non-President. At this national monument
U.S. National Monument

A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a United States Park Service except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of United States Congress....
, there is a bust
Bust (sculpture)

A bust is a sculpture or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders....
 of Carver, a ¾-mile nature trail, a museum, the 1881 Moses Carver house, and the Carver cemetery. Due to a variety of delays, the national monument was not opened until July, 1953.

In December 1947, a fire destroyed all but three of 48 of Carver's paintings at the Carver Museum Carver appeared on U.S. commemorative stamps in 1948 and 1998, and he was depicted on a commemorative half dollar
Half dollar (United States coin)

The half dollar of the United States, sometimes known as the fifty-cent piece, has been United States Mint coin production nearly every year since the inception of the United States Mint in 1794....
 coin from 1951 to 1954. Two ships, the Liberty ship
Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S....
 SS George Washington Carver
SS George Washington Carver

SS George Washington Carver was a Liberty ship built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. The ship was named in honor of George Washington Carver, and was the second Liberty ship named for an African American....
 and the nuclear submarine
Nuclear submarine

A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by nuclear reactor technology, as opposed to a more conventional submarine layout consisting of air-breathing diesel engine which are used to charge batteries for underwater running....
 USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656)
USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656)

USS George Washington Carver , a Benjamin Franklin class submarine submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for George Washington Carver , the researcher and inventor....
 were named in his honor.

In 1977, Carver was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans
Hall of Fame for Great Americans

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, is the original "Hall of Fame" in the United States. "Fame" here means "renown" . Its originator, Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, acknowledged inspiration from the Ruhmeshalle in Munich....
. In 1990, Carver was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame

The is the premier not-for-profit organization in America dedicated to recognizing, honoring and encouraging invention and creativity through the administration of its programs....
. In 1994, Iowa State University awarded Carver Doctor of Humane Letters
Doctor of Humane Letters

The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science , government , literature or religion ....
. In 2000, Carver was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as the "Father of Chemurgy".

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante
Molefi Kete Asante

Molefi Kete Asante is a contemporary American Academia in the field of African studies and African American Studies. He is currently Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University, where he founded the first PhD program in African American Studies....
 listed George Washington Carver on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans
100 Greatest African Americans

100 Greatest African Americans is a biographical dictionary of the one hundred greatness African Americans, as assessed by Molefi Kete Asante in 2002....
.

In 2005, Carver's research at the Tuskegee Institute was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark
ACS National Historical Chemical Landmarks

The National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program was launched by the American Chemical Society in 1992 and has recognized more than 60 landmarks to date....
 by the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society is a learned society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has over 160,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields....
. On February 15, 2005, an episode of Modern Marvels
Modern Marvels

Modern Marvels is a Documentary film television series that premiered on January 1, 1995 on History Channel. The program features how several things used in daily life in the modern world are made possible and their historical origins....
 included scenes from within Iowa State University's Food Sciences Building and about Carver's work. In 2005, the Missouri Botanical Garden
Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in St. Louis, Missouri, and is also known informally as "Shaw's Garden" .Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a National Historic Landmark....
 in St. Louis, Missouri, opened a George Washington Carver garden in his honor, which includes a lifesize statue of him.

Many institutions honor George Washington Carver to this day, particularly the American public school system. Dozens of elementary schools and high schools are named after him. National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is North America's premier professional men's basketball league, composed of thirty teams: twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada....
 star David Robinson
David Robinson (basketball)

David Maurice Robinson is a retired United States National Basketball Association basketball player, who is often considered one of the greatest center to ever play the game....
 and his wife, Valerie, founded an academy named after Carver; it opened on September 17, 2001, in San Antonio, Texas.

Reputed inventions

George Washington Carver reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. Among the listed items that he suggested to southern farmers to help them economically were adhesive
Adhesive

Adhesive or glue is a compound in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adhesion or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or Chemical synthesis sources....
s, axle grease, bleach
Bleach

A bleach is a chemical that removes colors or whitens, often via oxidation. Common chemical bleaches include household "chlorine bleach", a solution of approximately 3?6% sodium hypochlorite , and "oxygen bleach", which contains hydrogen peroxide or a peroxide-releasing compound such as sodium perborate, sodium percarbonate, sodium persulfat...
, buttermilk
Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product produced from cow's milk with a characteristically sour taste. The product is made in one of two ways....
, chili sauce
Hot sauce

Hot sauce, chili sauce, or pepper sauce refer to any spicy sauce made from chili peppers and other ingredients. There are many varieties around the world....
, fuel briquettes(a biofuel
Biofuel

Biofuel is defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuel derived from relatively recently dead biological material and is distinguished from fossil fuels, which are petroleum#formation....
), ink
Ink

An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
, instant coffee
Instant coffee

Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Through various manufacturing processes the coffee is dehydrated into the form of powder or granules....
, linoleum
Linoleum

Linoleum is a floor covering made from solidified linseed oil in combination with wood flour or cork dust over a burlap or canvas backing. Pigments may be added to the materials used....
, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer
Meat tenderizer

A meat tenderizer can refer to a tool or a chemical used for tenderizing meat.The tool is also known as a meat mallet, and is a product used for tenderizing slabs of meat in preparation for cooking the meat....
, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream
Shaving cream

Shaving cream is a substance that is applied to the face or wherever else hair grows, to provide lubrication and avoid razor burn during shaving....
, shoe polish
Shoe polish

Shoe polish , usually a waxy paste or a cream , is a consumer product used to polishing, waterproofing, and restore the appearance of leather shoes or boots, thereby extending the footwear's life....
, synthetic rubber, talcum powder and wood stain. Three patents (one for cosmetics, and two for paints and stains) were issued to George Washington Carver in the years 1925 to 1927; however, they were not commercially successful in the end. Aside from these patents and some recipes for food, he left no formulae or procedures for making his products. He did not keep a laboratory notebook.

It is a common misconception that Carver's research on products that could be made by small farmers for their own use led to commercial successes that revolutionized Southern agriculture, but these products were intended as adequate replacements for commercial products that were outside the budget of the small one-horse farmer. Carver's work to apply the scientific method to sustain small farmers and to provide them with the resources to be as independent of the cash economy as possible foreshadowed the "appropriate technology
Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social and economical aspects of the community it is intended for....
" work of E.F. Schumacher.

Peanut products

Dennis Keeney, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, wrote in the Leopold Letter newsletter:
Carver worked on improving soils, growing crops with low inputs, and using species that fixed nitrogen (hence, the work on the cowpea and the peanut). Carver wrote in The Need of Scientific Agriculture in the South: "The virgin fertility of our soils and the vast amount of unskilled labor have been more of a curse than a blessing to agriculture. This exhaustive system for cultivation, the destruction of forest, the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter, have made our agricultural problem one requiring more brains than of the North, East or West.
(Information taken from Fishbein, Toby. "The legacy of George Washington Carver." http://lib.iastate.edu/spcl/gwc/bio.html)

Carver did market a few of his peanut products. The Carver Penol Company sold a mixture of creosote
Creosote

Creosote is the name used for a variety of products including wood creosote and coal tar creosote. Wood creosote is created by high temperature treatment of beech and other woods, or from the resin of the Creosote bush....
 and peanuts as a patent medicine
Patent medicine

Patent medicine is the somewhat misleading term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were, for the most part, actually medicines with trademarks, not patented medicines....
 for respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis
Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacterium, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the...
. Other ventures were The Carver Products Company and the Carvoline Company. Carvoline Antiseptic Hair Dressing was a mix of peanut oil and lanolin
Lanolin

Lanolin, also called Adeps Lanae, wool wax, wool fat, anhydrous wool fat or wool grease, is a greasy yellow substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool animals, with the vast majority of it used by humans coming from domestic sheep....
. Carvoline Rubbing Oil was a peanut oil for massages.

Sweet potato products

Next to peanuts, Carver is most associated with sweet potato
Sweet potato

The 'sweet potato' is a dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Amongst the approximately 50 genera and more than 1000 species of this family, only I....
 products. In his 1922 sweet potato bulletin Carver listed a few dozen recipes "many of which I have copied verbatim from Bulletin No. 129, U. S. Department of Agriculture".

The list of Carver's sweet potato inventions compiled from Carver's records includes 73 dyes, 17 wood fillers, 14 candies, 5 library paste
Library paste

Library paste is a type of glue-like adhesive made from a mixture of either water and flour or water and starch. It is used to bind paper or paperboard....
s, 5 breakfast foods, 4 starches, 4 flours, and 3 molasseses. There are also listings for vinegar and spiced vinegar, dry coffee and instant coffee, candy, after-dinner mints, orange drops, and lemon drops.

Carver bulletins

During his more than four decades at Tuskegee, Carver's official published work consisted mainly of 44 practical bulletins for farmers. His first bulletin in 1898 was on feeding acorns to farm animals. His final bulletin in 1943 was about the peanut. He also published six bulletins on sweet potatoes, five on cotton, and four on cowpeas. Some other individual bulletins dealt with alfalfa, wild plum, tomato, ornamental plants, corn, poultry, dairying, hogs, preserving meats in hot weather, and nature study in schools.

His most popular bulletin,
How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption, was first published in 1916 and was reprinted many times. It gave a short overview of peanut crop production and contained a list of recipes from other agricultural bulletins, cookbooks, magazines, and newspapers, such as the Peerless Cookbook, Good Housekeeping, and Berry's Fruit Recipes. Carver's was far from the first American agricultural bulletin devoted to peanuts, but his bulletins did seem to be more popular and widespread than previous ones.

Religion


While George Washington Carver is most widely recognized for his scientific contributions regarding the peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
, he is also often recognized as a devoted Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
. God and science were both areas of interest, not warring ideas in the mind of George Washington Carver. He testified on many occasions that his faith in Jesus was the only mechanism by which he could effectively pursue and perform the art of science.

George Washington Carver became a Christian when he was ten years old. He matured in his faith by placing his understanding of God firmly in the words of the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. When he was still a young boy, he was not expected to live past his twenty-first birthday due to conspicuously failing health. He used the prognosis as an opportunity to exercise his trust in God and pushed forward. He lived well past the age of twenty-one, and his trust in God's provision deepened as a result. Throughout his career, he always found friendship and safety in the fellowship of other Christians. He relied on them exceedingly when enduring harsh criticism from the scientific community and newsprint media regarding his research methodology.

Dr. Carver's faith was foundational in how he approached life. He viewed faith in Jesus
Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
 as a means to destroying both barriers of racial disharmony and social stratification. For Dr. Carver, faith was an agent of change. It increased knowledge rather than competing against it. The greater his faith increased, the more he desired to learn. The more he learned, the greater his faith became. In attempts to teach his students, he defaulted first and foremost to the proclamation of Christ. He taught that knowledge of God through the Bible and devotion to Jesus were paramount to what he could teach them pedagogically through numbers and formulas. He was as concerned with his students' character development as he was with their intellectual development. He even compiled a list of eight cardinal virtues for his students to emulate and strive toward:

  • Be clean both inside and out.
  • Neither look up to the rich or down on the poor.
  • Lose, if need be, without squealing.
  • Win without bragging.
  • Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.
  • Be too brave to lie.
  • Be too generous to cheat.
  • Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.


Carver also led a Bible class on Sundays while at Tuskegee, beginning in 1906, for several students at their request. In this class he would regularly tell the stories from the Bible by acting them out. Unconventional in respect to both his scientific method and his ambition as a teacher, he inspired as much criticism as he did praise. Dr. Carver expressed this sentiment in response to this phenomenon: "When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

The legacy of George Washington Carver's faith is included in many Christian book series for children and adults about great men and women of faith and the work they accomplished through their convictions respectively. One such series, the
Sower series, includes his story alongside those of such men as Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist, mathematician, Astronomy, Natural philosophy, Alchemy, and Theology and one of the the 100 in human history....
, Samuel Morse, Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a Germans mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century Scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous Kepler's laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astrononomy....
, and the Wright brothers
Wright brothers

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two United States who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first successful fixed-wing aircraft and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air Flight#Mechanical flight, on December 17, 1903....
. Other Christian literary references include "Man’s Slave, God’s Scientist", by David R. Collins and the
Heroes of the Faith series book "George Washington Carver: Inventor and Naturalist" by Sam Wellman. He is also included in Christian and homeschooling curricula in the history units along with Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
, David Livingstone
David Livingstone

Doctor David Livingstone was a Scotland Congregational church pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and List of explorers in Central Africa Africa....
, and Eric Liddell
Eric Liddell

Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish people Athletics , rugby union international and missionary. His surname is and rhymes with fiddle.Liddell was the winner of the Sprint at the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris....
.

See also

  • African-American history
  • Boll Weevil
    Boll weevil

    The boll weevil is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the US from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all US cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American so...
  • Carver Academy
    Carver Academy

    The Carver Academy is a non-profit, private school located in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded by David Robinson , former National Basketball Association basketball player with the San Antonio Spurs, and his wife Valerie....
  • List of people on stamps of the United States
    List of people on stamps of the United States

    This article lists people who have been featured on United States postage stamps.Since the United States Post Office issued its first stamp in 1847, over 4,000 stamps have been issued and over 800 people featured....
  • Peanut
    Peanut

    The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....


External links


  • National Park Service
    National Park Service

    The National Park Service is the List of United States federal agencies that manages all List of areas in the United States National Park System, many U.S....
    :
from the National Parks Service from the National Parks Service
  • from Tuskegee University
    Tuskegee University

    Tuskegee University is a private university, Historically black colleges and universities university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, Alabama, United States....
  • from Iowa State University
    Iowa State University

    The Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant university and Space grant colleges university located in Ames, Iowa, United States....
  • from the American Chemical Society
    American Chemical Society

    The American Chemical Society is a learned society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has over 160,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields....

Print publications

  • Linda O. McMurry, George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. (Questia Online Library
    Questia Online Library

    Questia is an online commercial digital library of books and articles with an academic orientation. It claims to be "the world's largest online collection of books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences."....
    : , Google Books:)