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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Carver, George Washington
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| Affiliation | Independent |
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| Name | George Washington Carver |
| Address |
Diamond Grove, Missouri , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
00, 1864
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| Died | January 05, 1943
(79 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | E Pluribus Unum
Apr 23, 2024 06:54pm |
| Tags |
Black - Bisexual - Disputed -
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| Info | George Washington Carver (c. 1864-5 - January 5, 1943) was an African-American botanist who worked in agricultural extension in the southern U.S.. He taught former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency, he is known for suggesting hundreds of uses for the peanut and other plants to increase the profitability of farming.
Carver was born into slavery in the early 1860s, near Diamond Grove Missouri. His owner was a German immigrant named Moses Carver, who also owned his mother and brother. His father died in an accident when he was very young. When George was an infant, he and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate night raiders who hoped to sell them elsewhere, a common practice. Carver hired John Bentley to find them. George's mother, Mary, had already been sold; however, George, near death, was returned to the Carvers by Bentley. Moses Carver rewarded him with his best filly. This episode caused a bout of respiratory disease that left him with a permanently weakened constitution. Because of this, he was unable to work as a hand and spent his time wandering the fields, drawn to the varieties of wild plants. He became so knowledgeable that he was known by the Carvers' neighbors as "the plant doctor".
One day he was called to a neighbor's house to help with a plant in need. When he had fixed the problem, he was told to go into the kitchen to collect his reward. When he entered the kitchen, he saw no one. He did, however, see something that changed his life. He saw beautiful paintings of flowers on the walls of the room. From that moment on, he knew that he was going to be an artist as well as a botanist.
After slavery was abolished, Carver and his wife raised George and his brother as their own, and encouraged the boy to continue his intellectual pursuits.
He earned his high-school diploma at Minneapolis High School in Kansas. In 1887, he was accepted to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He excelled in art and music, but art instructor Etta Budd, whose father was head of the Iowa State College Department of Horticulture, recognized Carver's horticultural talents. Realizing the difficulties facing an African-American artist, she convinced him to pursue a more pragmatic career in scientific agriculture and, in 1891, he became the first African-American to enroll at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, which today is Iowa State University.
In order to avoid confusion with another George Carver in his classes, he began to use the name George Washington Carver. Through quiet determination and perseverance, Carver soon became involved in all facets of campus life. He was a leader in the YMCA and the debate club. He worked in the dining rooms and as a trainer for the athletic teams. He was captain, the highest student rank, of the campus military regiment. His poetry was published in the student newspaper and two of his paintings were exhibited at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
Carver's interests in music and art remained strong, but it was his excellence in botany and horticulture that prompted professors Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel to encourage him to stay on as a graduate student after he completed his bachelor's degree in 1894. Because of his proficiency in plant breeding, Carver was appointed to the faculty, becoming Iowa State's first African-American faculty member.
Over the next two years, as assistant botanist for the College Experiment Station, Carver quickly developed scientific skills in plant pathology and mycology, the branch of botany that deals with fungi. He published several articles on his work and gained national respect. In 1896, he completed his master's degree and became the college's first African-American faculty member.
Upon returning home one day, George Washington Carver took a bad fall down a flight of stairs. He was found unconscious by a maid who took him to a hospital. George Washington Carver died January 5, 1943 at the age of 79 from complications resulting from this fall.
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