George Washington Carver: An Early Biotechnologist
Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in Faculty, I'm a Full Professor!, Scholarly Celebrations
George Washington Carver (~January 1864 – January 5, 1943), was an American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor 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.
He was born in Diamond Grove, Missouri. As a child, he and members of his family were kidnapped. Only he was found after his slave master hired someone to find them. Some reports say his mother and sister fled North while others say they had died by the time George was found.
Education
After slavery was abolished, George’s owners, Moses Carver and his wife Susan, raised George along with their other children – encouraging him to pursue his intellectual pursuits. Since Blacks could not be taught to read or write in Diamond Grove, George traveled to a black school 10 miles away in Neosho. There after introducing himself as Carver’s George, a teacher gave him the name George Carver and inspired him to give back all he had learned and this made a huge impact on him.
You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people.
Carver was accepted to Highland College in Highland, Kansas, but was refused admission when they realized he was Black. In August 1886, Carver traveled by wagon with J. F. Beeler from Highland to Eden Township in Ness County, Kansas. He homesteaded a claim near Beeler, where he maintained a small conservatory of plants and flowers and a geological collection. With no help from domestic animals he plowed 17 acres of the claim, planting rice, corn, Indian corn and garden produce, as well as various fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubbery.
From http://www.totalblacktv.com (no audio)
In early 1888, Carver obtained a $3000 loan at the Bank of Ness City, 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 in Indianola, Iowa. His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver’s talent for painting flowers and plants and convinced him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College 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. 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 and mycology that first gained him national recognition and respect as a botanist.
In August 1886, Carver traveled by wagon with J. F. Beeler from Highland to Eden Township in Ness County, Kansas. He homesteaded a claim near Beeler, where he maintained a small conservatory of plants and flowers and a geological collection. With no help from domestic animals he plowed 17 acres (69,000 m2) 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 jobs in town and worked as a ranch hand.
In early 1888, Carver obtained a $3000 loan at the Bank of Ness City, 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 in Indianola, Iowa. His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver’s talent for painting flowers and plants and convinced him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College 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. 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 and mycology that first gained him national recognition and respect as a botanist.
George Washington Carver (front row, middle) at Tuskegee
In 1896, Carver was invited to lead the Agriculture Department at the five-year-old Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, later Tuskegee University, by its founder, Booker T. Washington. Carver accepted the position, and remained there for 47 years, teaching former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency.
In 1928, Simpson College bestowed on Carver an honorary doctorate.
Fame
Much of Carver’s fame is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts 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 300 products made from peanuts, soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes that were useful for the house and farm, including adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes (a biofuel), ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder , wood stain, cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin.
His speech to Congress in 1921 resulted in Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 on peanuts which were highly imported from the Republic of China at the time.
In the Reconstruction South, an agricultural monoculture of cotton depleted the soil, and in the early 20th century the boll weevil 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 and appreciation of plants and nature, Carver’s important accomplishments also included improvement of racial relations, mentoring children, poetry, painting, and religion. He served as an example of the importance of hard work, a positive attitude, and a good education. His humility, humanitarianism, good nature, frugality, and rejection of economic materialism 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 of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior to the white race. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed him a “Black Leonardo”, a reference to the Renaissance Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci.
He died from complications (amnesia) as a result of a fall down a flight of stairs in his home. To commemorate his life and inventions, George Washington Carver Recognition Day is celebrated on January 5, the anniversary of Carver’s death.
-Summarized from wikipedia.
The young boy known as the “Plant Doctor,” tended his secret garden while observing the day to day operations of a successful 19th century farm. Nature and nurture ultimately influenced George on his journey to becoming a renowned scientist of agriculture. There is a monument in Busch Gardens, St. Louis, MO erected in honor of George Washington Carver, he was honored with a commemorative stamp in 1948, two ships are named in his honor, his work at Tuskegee has been honored as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society, he is in the Hall of Fame of Great Americans, and formed the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee along with a host of other honors!
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